‘India will soon lose its job’: Union minister

Union Minister M.V.K. Singh on Sunday said that India’s labour force will soon be down to 60 million people due to the country’s economic woes and its shortage of manpower.

Speaking at the launch of the Economic Survey of India 2017, Singh said the country will soon need to start rethinking its workforce model, which has been criticised for being dependent on manpower.

Singh, however, said the government is yet to figure out a solution to the problem, adding that India has been “burdened by a jobless crisis” since its entry into the World Trade Organisation.

He also said that the government will soon have to make a change to its labour laws, and make the minimum wage a reality in rural areas.

India’s economy has been on a roller coaster ride since the beginning of the year, and has been hit by a slew of crises including the closure of more than two dozen ports in the country and the collapse of coal prices.

The minister said that a shortage of skilled labour will soon make India lose its jobs and create economic pain.

“We have witnessed a sharp rise in the number of labour-related deaths since the government began to introduce its first draft of the labour law in December 2017.

Our country has already lost more than 600,000 jobs,” he said.

India is one of the world’s top seven industrialised countries, and the second-largest in terms of employment.