Modi asks data on employment-generated to silence opposition claims
What's the story
In a move to counter criticism from the opposition, the NDA government has asked all the ministries and departments to collate data on the amount of employment, both direct and indirect, it has generated via central schemes during three years of its regime.
Ministries have been directed to report their findings by today, according to TOI.
Here's all that you need to know.
Promise
A matter of prestige
The opposition has often criticized the government for being unable to create jobs in the country, a promise that it had made in its poll manifesto.
In order to silence the opposition with solid numbers, this move was devised in a meeting, chaired by the information and broadcasting secretary, Sunil Arora.
Difficulties
It's not going to be an easy task
An official told TOI, "The task is also to estimate the potential number of jobs that can be created because of the ongoing schemes and programs."
The task will be a daunting one as both direct and indirect jobs need to be accounted for, the latter will be prone to speculation and the volume of data that needs to be gathered is humongous.
Jobs
A sector-wise policy to generate jobs
The center is now mulling on creating a sector-wise employment policy to combat poor employment numbers.
Union Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said, "We will come out with a new National Employment Policy in the next five-six months, after holding consultations with various ministries, including micro, small and medium enterprises, heavy industries, electronics and information technology, health, education, textiles and more importantly, commerce."
NITI Aayog
The need for defined numbers
According to reports, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya and his task force have been asked by the government to devise a methodology, which will be able to formulate employment data.
Modi has personally kick-started the project and expects the committee to provide recommendations soon to aid his intention of fuelling job creations, as the NDA government is entering the fourth year of its tenure.