'Jobless growth, urban chaos has made youth restless': Manmohan Singh

New Delhi: Jobless growth, together with rural indebtedness and urban chaos, has made the aspirational youth of our country more and more restless, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday.

“The suicides of farmers and frequent farmer agitation reflect the structural imbalances in our economy which call for serious in-depth analysis and political will to address them. The jobless growth, together with rural indebtedness and urban chaos have made the aspirational youth of our country more and more restless,” he said while addressing the convocation ceremony of a management institute here.

Singh, who has criticized the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government for demonetization and implementation in the past, said that attempts at creating additional job opportunities in the industrial sector have failed as industrial growth is not picking up fast enough.

“The small unorganized sectors which were vibrant and contributing to the generation of wealth and employment opportunities have grievously suffered in the wake of the disastrous demonetization and slip-short introduction and implementation of the GST,” he stressed.

Underlining the economic and social challenges before India, the former Prime Minister said, “We are living in a fast-changing world. On the one hand, we are getting more and more integrated with the world economy and exposed to the global institutions and market. And on the other hand, there are massive economic and social challenges at home.”.  

While talking about the Indian economy, the former prime minister told management students, “You are joining the business world at an important time when India is projected to be one of the world's three or four economies of the world by 2030."