Industry body PHDCCI suggests political parties to work on 7 areas to create jobs

Industry body PHDCCI Wednesday suggested political parties to work on seven areas including smart farming, bolstering industrialisation and revitalising exports growth, to create over 100 million jobs in the next five years. There is a need to focus on a seven-pronged strategy to create "more than 100 million jobs in the next five years", the chamber said.

These include "smart farming, bolstering industrialisation with artificial intelligence and industry 4.0, ease of doing business for MSMEs, revitalising exports growth, exploring tourism potential, quality education with skill development and inclusive health for all," the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) said in a statement. The tourism sector has immense importance not only in earning foreign currency but also in creating millions of employment opportunities for the unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workforce, it said.

"The tourism sector has potential to create more than 40 million new jobs in the next five years," it said. It added that smart farming should be explored from strengths in the agriculture sector to shift disguised unemployment from traditional agriculture to agro and food processing exports.

"India has the potential to become a manufacturing hub and to increase its share in GDP (gross domestic product) to 25 per cent by 2023-24. We suggest reforms indirect taxation to take place in which corporate tax rate should be reduced to 20 per cent for all, ignoring the turnover criteria," it added. It said the improvement in logistics infrastructure and trade facilitation measures would enhance export growth trajectory and create 10 million new jobs in the next five years.