India must create up to 148 million jobs by 2030, says IMF official

NEW DELHI: India needs to create an additional 148 million jobs by 2030 given the population growth, IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said on Saturday.

“If you look at India’s projections in terms of population growth, India will have to create anywhere between 60 million to 148 million additional jobs cumulatively between now and 2030. We are already in 2024, so in a short period of time we have to create a lot of jobs,” she said while speaking at the Delhi School of Economics Diamond Jubilee event in New Delhi. She said it is going to require basic reforms including land reforms and implementation of labour codes to achieve employment generation of that scale.

Gopinath said that to generate more jobs there is a need for an increase in private investment as it is not commensurate with 7% growth in GDP.