It is commendable Prime Minister Narendra Modi has personally taken a lead in fighting unemployment. In a review of the status of human resources of government departments and ministries, the Prime Minister has directed them to begin recruiting in a ‘mission mode’ aiming to get 10 lakh fresh hands on board within 18 months. The government has been facing criticism that despite the high employment, a large number of vacancies in different government sectors is not filled up.
Simultaneously, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh announced that the three armed forces will together recruit 45,000 personnel this year on short commission with a four-year tenure. The best 25% of the ‘Agniveers’, as they have been dubbed, will be absorbed in the regular forces; the others will be discharged with handsome severance payouts.
This initiative comes at a time when spiralling inflation and a tight monetary policy in the US and elsewhere is threatening to derail growth and is spinning the world towards recession. The US’ consumer price index figures released last Friday showed inflation hitting a record high of 8.6% for May. The template in India is a little tempered by the recent cut in fuel prices, but nevertheless continued to hover in May around 7.04%—much above the ceiling of 6% allowed by the Reserve Bank of India. After the recent hike in bank lending (repo) rates by 50 basis points, all the indications are there for a further hardening of interest rates.
As the US Fed lurches towards a possible 2.5% increase in borrowing rates by September, this year, the global growth story is bound to bite the dust before things get better. The prolonged war in Ukraine has exacerbated the shortage of food and fuel and made them more expensive. The slowdown is evident in India, and it is at the cost of jobs. In this situation, it is government spending, and more particularly government job recruitment that can offer some panacea in the coming crisis. State governments should take a leaf from the Centre. The only caveat is these helpful schemes being announced by the PM should be for real and not remain on paper.