Jobless growth, rural indebtedness, urban chaos have made aspirational youths restless: Manmohan

February 17, 2019 18:35

The "jobless growth" has slipped into "job-loss growth", which, together with rural indebtedness and urban chaos, has made the growing number of aspirational youths restless, former prime minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday, as he hit out at the government for failing to uplift the economy to its potential.

Singh asserted that the domestic challenges of India's economy were daunting in their complexity and devastating in their impact on the society.

In his convocation address at the Delhi School of Management, he said the "grave agrarian crisis, the declining employment opportunities, the pervasive environmental degradation, and above all the divisive forces at work" were some of the challenges facing the nation.

"Suicides of farmers and frequent farmer agitations reflect the structural imbalances in our economy which call for serious in-depth analysis and political will to address them," the senior Congress leader asserted.

"The jobless growth slipping into job-loss growth, together with rural indebtedness and urban chaos have made the growing aspirational youths restless, he said.

The attempts at creating additional job opportunities in the industrial sector have failed as industrial growth is not picking up fast enough, he alleged.

In a scathing attack on the government, Singh said the small and unorganised sectors which were vibrant and contributing to generation of wealth and employment opportunities have grievously suffered in the wake of the "disastrous" demonetisation and "slipshod" introduction and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

-- PTI

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