New labour reforms will create jobs

New Delhi: India needs to unleash second generation labour reforms and capitalise on demographic advantage for creating new firms and jobs, a government document said on Wednesday. “It is imperative to use India’s unique demographic moment wisely and unleash the second generation reforms,” the Economic Survey for 2013-14 stated.

The suggestion assumes significance as the employment growth during 2004-05 to 2011-12 was only 0.5 per cent compared to 2.8 per cent during 1999-2000 to 2004-05. India with a large young population has a great advantage. The average age of the 125 billion strong country’s population will be 29 years in 2020, even younger than the 37 years of China and the US.