A Study of India’s Unemployment Conundrum

Abstract

On May 23, 2019, the day of completion of this Paper, India completed the world's largest ever democratic election process to re-elect the incumbent National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under the Prime Ministership of Narendra Modi, frequently referred to as 'NaMo' in popular media. Narendra Modi's victory is so resounding, that it is being touted as a 'TsuNaMo', washing away in its wake, even the grand old party of India, the Indian National Congress, and many other dynastic political parties. However, brutally criticised for failing to live up to its promise of creating millions of jobs during its first term, the NDA 2.0 government will have its task cut out, when it comes to tackling India's severe unemployment crisis. A story titled 'Blueprint 2.0: Here's what the new government's first big decisions are likely to be' in Economic Times, clearly identified the possibility of substantive work on job creation. The story also identified three large scale job-creating sectors, that are likely to see radical reforms. While it might be fine to bring reforms in such specific sectors in the short and medium terms to facilitate quick large-scale employment,