Seeking to address India’s job crisis in times of AI adoption and a skills gap between education and market needs, the Budget has prioritised long-term job creation, focusing on services, creative industries, rural, healthcare, textiles and tourism.
Today, when global uncertainty is growing and the emphasis remains firmly on India, the FM’s proposals aim to prepare India’s workforce for future growth sectors.
While domestic demand has gotten a fillip in the past one year through monetary, fiscal and GST relief measures, experts point to the need for demand to sustain long-term growth. “The big challenge after last year’s bazooka is how to keep demand going. The government’s response to this has been to focus on income resiliency through job creation.
This is a more long-term approach the government is taking to consumption, versus a tax cut, which has an immediate impact on demand,” Naveen Malpani, partner and retail & e-commerce industry leader, Grant Thornton Bharat, told FE.
The focus on domestic manufacturing, explained Delano Furtado, partner, corporate practice, Trilegal, is aimed at boosting local employment and building resilience to trade and tariff barriers, while supporting growth of exports.
Education to Employment
A major announcement in the Budget has been a proposal to set up a high-powered Education to Employment and Enterprise Standing Committee.
The committee will focus on strengthening the services sector, which already contributes more than half of India’s GDP and exports.
In healthcare the emphasis has been to align medical education with research, innovation, clinical practice and employment generation, experts said. Allied health education, in particular, has been spotlighted, with existing institutions for allied health professionals to be upgraded and new institutions to be set up in both the public and private sectors.
Vinay Joy, partner, Khaitan & Co, said the focus on developing allied health professionals will create new job opportunities in diagnostics, critical care units, rehabilitation centres and behavioural health facilities, beyond medical and nursing services, which have long overshadowed the former.
The orange economy, meanwhile, has been given a big boost through animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) content creator labs, which will be set up across thousands of schools and colleges. This move is designed to build early skills, encourage innovation, and create employment opportunities linked to ideas, design and digital creativity.
Rural Income Support
To support job creation beyond urban centres, the government has announced steps to expand employment in the animal husbandry sector. A credit-linked subsidy programme will help scale and modernise livestock enterprises in rural and semi-urban areas and support high-value agriculture such as coconut , cashew and sandalwood.
“The Coconut Promotion Scheme will not only boost coconut production in India but will also help augment incomes and will ensure long-term livelihood for farmers and ancillary workers,” Coconut Development Board’s Chief Coconut Development Officer B Hanumanthe Gowda told FE.
Tourism has been highlighted as a strong employment generator, with the Budget proposing the creation of a National Destination Digital Knowledge Grid to document cultural and spiritual sites. In addition, ecologically sustainable mountain trails will be developed, and selected archaeological sites will be upgraded into experiential cultural destinations.
To support workforce development in hospitality, the government has announced plans to establish a National Institute of Hospitality aimed at skilling 10,000 guides, linking education, industry and policy in a bid to improve employability and service quality.