Four action points for the new government’s first 100 days

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₹1.4 trillion. The stock market is riding high. Against sound macroeconomic data, what should the economic priorities be for a 100-day program? Here are four specific suggestions.

Employment and job creation are maor challenges. An International Labour Organization and Institute for Human Development report says that 83% of the unemployed are youth below the age of 29. At the same time, there is a severe shortage of workers for skilled and semi-skilled jobs.

A big priority, thus, should be to launch a national apprenticeship programme with stronger legal teeth than what exists now. Much skill acquisition is via on-the-job learning. Employers do not want to be burdened with a labour law that mandates that any worker or apprentice who is employed for more than six months should be made permanent.

An apprenticeship certificate should be nationally portable and have the authentication stamp of a central authority. A national apprentice programme in campaign mode can combine all these features and help address youth unemployment, our skill-building deficit and employability gaps. A related measure could be to extend the Agniveer scheme to seven or eight years, closer in duration to the Short Service Commission available to officer cadre applicants.

This will improve army intake and address worries of the exit year, which is the fourth year, coming too soon. The second suggestion is to give the farm sector’s minimum support price mechanism a legal guarantee. An earlier column (of 20 February 2024) described its feasibility both from the cost and judicial angles.