PM Modi’s advisory council fails to give input on job creation

New Delhi: Despite the fact that unemployment is at a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent and job creation being one of the major challenges before the NDA government, the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council—a panel which had been set up in September 2017 for developing a roadmap on key issues facing the government—till date has not given any input on generating employment.

According to highly placed sources, the economic advisory council of the Prime Minister or the EAC-PM, has not given any recommendation or any policy paper on the roadmap for job creation. The EAC-PM has met on a few occasions since its inception, and discussed issues like improving investments in health, agriculture and even skill upgrade, however it is yet to be come up with any concrete recommendations which can help in creating jobs, or enhancing job prospects, sources added.

When it was set up in September 2017, the EAC-PM, headed by former Niti Aayog member Bibek Debroy, was mandated to give its inputs on 10 key issues facing the government, directly to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Till date though, the EAC is yet to come out with any concrete recommendations on any of the 10 issues, even as its ‘council report’ on these issues is still awaited.

Employment and job creation was among the 10 issues on which it was supposed to deliberate.

The other issues were fiscal framework, informal sector, public expenditure, monetary policy and agriculture, among others.

Official sources on their part say that based on deliberations, the EAC-PM has been providing advisory inputs to the Government from time to time, but is yet to submit any specific policy paper on the roadmap for job creation and infrastructure financing avenues.

During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government had in its election manifesto, focussed on need-based skill development and employability.

Also it had promised to develop high impact domains like labour-intensive manufacturing and tourism.

While it especially set up a new skill development ministry and initiated several job creation related schemes like Start-up India and Skill India, yet the fact that unemployment recorded a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) conducted in 2017-18, is likely to keep the BJP-led NDA government's hands full in its second term.