Budget 2018: Elections or not, my mantra is development, says Narendra Modi

BUDGET 2018 - Countering the allegation that his government had reneged on the promise of creating 10 million jobs a year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted a recent study showing seven million jobs had been created in the formal sector alone in the current financial year.

“This data of seven million jobs is not like building castles in the air. It has been calculated by an independent agency on the basis of EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) figures,” Modi said in a television interview, days before leaving for Davos to attend the World Economic Forum meet.

One should also count the opportunities that were being created in the informal sector, he added.

“As many as 100 million people have taken loans from the Prime Minister Mudra Yojana without any bank guarantee. Loans to the tune of Rs 4 trillion have been disbursed. New entrepreneurs are being created. Won’t you count these figures as job creation?” he asked.

“One can counter these figures on the political lines, but these numbers are not based on just wishful thinking,” he said. “We are on the right track so far as job creation is concerned.”

According to a study authored by SBI Group Chief Economic Advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh and IIM Bangalore professor Pulak Ghosh, 590,000 jobs had been generated every month until November in the current financial year. This means that seven million jobs will be created in the formal sector in 2017-18 if one expands the trend on a pro-rata basis.