Earlier this month, researchers at Citigroup painted a less-than-rosy picture of India’s briskly expanding but deeply uneven economy — one which has struggled to seize the opportunities of its demographic bulge.
The bank’s economists estimated that even if India’s real GDP continues to grow at a clip of 7 per cent, the country can only generate up to 9mn jobs a year — falling short of the roughly 12mn needed to absorb its youthful labour force.
“With the risk of automation and mechanisation lowering employment elasticity even further, a higher than 7 per cent GDP growth is required to satiate India’s job needs,” they wrote in a stark analysis coupled with detailed policy recommendations.