More than formalising informal jobs, we need to create productive ones

For the future job market, remove barriers to productivity, ensure that wages rise in tandem, enable voice for workers and expand a portable social protection framework that is de-linked from employment.

India is a complex nation strengthened by geographic, linguistic and resource diversity, but still challenged by social divisions on the basis of caste, gender and religion. Its labour markets are as multifaceted as the nation itself.Yet, the discussion largely hovers around informality and formality.This tidy binary posits informality as always bad with poor quality work and lack of skill with low productivity and wages.

In actuality, the spectrum of employment is a continuum based on graduating levels of productivity, associated wages, social protection and tax compliance. This covers those with contracts, health care and retirement benefits, to those with regular wages but no social protection, to daily wage workers with no written contracts and, thus, who can be dismissed at will. All these categories of workers can be found with all types of employers, whether working for households, family firms, formal registered large enterprises or government agencies.

Going forward, the tech-fuelled changing nature of work forces us to recall the past, which used to have a stable lifetime job with health and retirement benefits. Most jobs in large firms and even government jobs no longer have a defined pension and health benefits are diverted through insurance schemes. With limited employment security, soon there will be little to distinguish such formal work from informal employment with social protection.

Instead of being fixated on the dichotomy between informality and formality, it is time to think of the quality of work as a matrix where one axis reflects various forms of social protection and the other indicates types of employment — from uncertain daily labour to permanent employment.Once social protection is delinked from work, it is possible for a daily wage construction worker to have access to retirement benefits and health insurance, as is already possible, but not widespread, in India.The other imperative is to enable workers to leverage skills acquired without formal certification. For this, recognition of prior learning is key and our existing initiatives need to be improved and scaled up significantly.

Beyond social protection and skill recognition, the challenge of improving productivity and raising earnings remains.This needs support to smaller firms, not through subsidies but by access to reliable infrastructure, affordable and accessible finance and linkages to global value chains.

Much is made of technology and the rise of the platform economy and its flexible work arrangements. A worker who earned a fixed and low wage can, in principle, now earn more as part of the platform — at times, by self-exploiting himself or herself by working longer hours.It is not as if flexibility is absent from traditional work arrangements. Even today, manufacturing is outsourced to home-based workers, often women, allowing them to balance socially constructed domestic responsibilities with income generation activities, bringing a few more women into a workforce from which they are conspicuously absent. A key difference is that the platform enables a direct link to the consumer, enabling workers to retain more of the surplus.

But more than flexibility, a major benefit of platform arrangements is the increase in visibility of the worker. This is also true for contract workers employed through formal suppliers. In addition to better tax compliance, it can be leveraged to connect workers to social security frameworks. Workers like contract manufacturing workers, drivers, delivery persons, carpenters, domestic workers and beauticians are all ordinarily invisible to the social protection system. But once on a platform, they become visible and potential beneficiaries of a universal social protection system, with benefits that continue even if they change jobs or migrate. This breaks the conflation of informal employment with lack of social protection.

Concomitantly, while platform arrangements can be used to skirt tax and labour regulations, it also brings together disconnected, self-employed workers. Despite their uncertain legal status as employees, they can organise to make demands. Some nascent research suggests the emergence of new forms of organising and bargaining in the platform economy. These forms use digital technologies and social media to organise, and find creative ways to subvert the power asymmetries between ‘employers’ and workers, leading to new forms of collective bargaining.

The Indian labour market was already much too heterogeneous to fit into simple dualism frameworks.Technology and migration only make it more complex. Our challenge is not about formalising the informal, but rather the production of more just jobs — work that is productive and remunerative. It is removing barriers to productivity, ensuring wages rise in tandem, enabling a voice for workers and expanding a portable social protection framework that is delinked from employment. Only then can we confidently navigate the transition to the future of work.

Sabina Dewan is president and executive director, JustJobs Network, and senior visiting fellow, Centre for Policy Research. Partha Mukhopadhyay is senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research. This is the second in a series of articles for the CPR Dialogues starting shortly in New Delhi. Hindustan Times is the print partner for the event. For more: www.cprdialogues.org. The views expressed are personal

Source: Hindustan Times, 14/12/2018

To fix the unemployment problem, India must strengthen the manufacturing sector

Efforts to reduce the trade deficits must correct the imbalance between domestic absorption and domestic production; and manufacturing-led growth can ensure this

The Labour Bureau’s last household survey (2015-16) reports India’s unemployment rate at 3.6% (by the Usual Principal Subsidiary Status definition), a figure lower than that of several advanced economies. So why are jobs such a hot button issue?

Dig a bit deeper and startling facts emerge. An examination of unemployment rates (UR) across different age groups shows that UR for the youth (age group 15-29 years) stood at 10.3%, considerably higher than that for the older job seekers (30-59 years) at 1%. Additionally, detailed analysis of the UR across different educational categories shows that the UR increases with educational qualifications. The UR for those with graduate and post graduate (and above) degrees was significantly high at 13.7% and 12.5% respectively. In contrast, the UR for those who are not literate and are literate below primary level was less than 1% in 2015-16.

A further disaggregated analysis of UR by age and educational qualification shows that UR for youth with graduate degrees and postgraduate and above degrees was close to 30%. These statistics reflect that India’s youth, and the educated ones in particular, face a serious employment crisis — a predicament that is only likely to exacerbate as the young population gets more educated. India’s educated aspirational youth are seeking well paying productive jobs commensurate with their educational qualifications. So where will these productive jobs come from?

India’s inability to create productive jobs for its rapidly rising young workforce stems largely from the failure of its manufacturing sector to become an engine of job creation. Unlike other countries at similar levels of development, India has achieved spectacular growth rates without witnessing growth of its manufacturing sector. The share of manufacturing in GDP and employment has remained virtually stagnant at 15% and 12% respectively over the past three decades. The rapid service-led growth experience over the last decade has lent credence to the belief that not only has India leapfrogged the phase of manufacturing-led development and set out its own idiosyncratic path of structural transformation, but also that the idea of manufacturing-led growth is obsolete . This could not be further from the truth.

Manufacturing generates the strongest forward and backward linkages across other sectors of the economy, which are important transmission links to growth and job creation. With a strong multiplier effect, manufacturing has the potential to generate faster growth of employment in the organised sector than the services sector. Apart from generating direct employment, rapid manufacturing growth drives rapid growth of employment in other sectors too, as the production processes in manufacturing increase the demand for raw materials, energy, construction and services from a broad array of supplying industries. Additionally, manufacturing activity raises growth of non traded services through the income effect.

The India Employment Report (2016) identifies another compelling reason for making a transition from service-led growth to manufacturing-led growth. Services-led growth has created a large imbalance between domestic absorption (requiring mainly goods) and domestic production (of mainly services) that has led to unsustainably large trade deficits. Services exports simply cannot finance the required goods imports. A country cannot trade services for most of its goods. Efforts to reduce the trade deficits must correct this imbalance between domestic absorption and domestic production; and manufacturing-led growth can ensure this. As India’s trade and current account deficit widens, this issue becomes more pertinent than ever before.

There are many who argue that India has missed the manufacturing bus and that automation and robotics will spell the end of manufacturing jobs. While it is true that workers are likely to be displaced by technological changes, it is also true that several new tasks and occupations will emerge, thereby creating a reinstatement effect. Importantly, in developing countries such as India, where labour costs are still relatively low and there are significant financial costs associated with adopting and implementing new technologies, the pace of automation is likely to be slower than in the advanced world. Therefore, even though it may be technically feasible to automate, it may not be economically feasible. This gives India a longer window of opportunity to adapt and prepare for technological changes and build a strong robust manufacturing sector. Ignoring the potential of this sector in addressing India’s employment and macroeconomic challenges would be a monumental mistake.

Radhicka Kapoor is a fellow at ICRIER, and has worked with the Planning Commission and International Labour Organization

Source: Hindustan Times, 27/11/2018

Students need to be encouraged into startup culture: AICTE chairperson

There is a need to bring students into startup culture and to provide them a platform where they can convert their bright ideas into innovation, AICTE Chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe said on Friday.

There is a need to bring students into startup culture and to provide them a platform where they can convert their bright ideas into innovation, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Chairperson Anil D Sahasrabudhe said on Friday.

He was addressing a gathering on the occasion of the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research 51st annual day at the NITTTR campus in Chandigarh.

Sahasrabudhe said that the AICTE is not just a regulator but also a facilitator committed to improving the quality of technical education.

“There is a need to bring students into startup culture and to provide them a platform where they can convert their bright ideas into innovation,” he said.

“We should create as support system for students, including more internship or skill programme, to hone their skills,” he said.

The lack of resources and unemployment are the major challenges, Sahasrabudhe said, adding that we should focus on startups.

The AICTE has made its own startup policy through which universities and colleges along with their normal courses will start entrepreneurship courses, he said.

He said that lab and research centres should be opened for 24 hours for students so that they can do research and draw their ideas.

“The Indian students have a lot of potential, we just need to identify and channelise their ideas in the right direction,” he said.

He shared his views on challenges faced by technical education in the country and appreciated the new initiatives and innovations being undertaken by this institute for technical teacher training to improve the quality of technical education.

He assured the support of the AICTE to the institute towards qualitative improvement of technical education in the country.

Source: Hindustan Times, 7/09/2018

Where the jobs are: on the unemployment rate

News reports over the last few weeks suggest that the Central government may finally be starting to think seriously about jobs. Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramaniam recently pointed to the need to achieve higher economic growth, in the range of 8% to 10%, to solve the problem of jobless growth. In particular, he flagged the underperformance of the information technology, construction and agricultural sectors, which earlier served as huge job-creators for the economy. It is worth noting that India added just 1.35 lakh jobs in eight labour-intensive sectors in 2015, compared to the 9.3 lakh jobs that were created in 2011, according to Labour Bureau figures. The rate of unemployment grew steadily from 3.8% in 2011-12 to 5% in 2015-16. Union Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya has downplayed the gloomy job situation as being a temporary one. His focus instead is on the new National Employment Policy which, he says, would be released later this year and focus on shifting jobs from the informal to the formal sector. NITI Aayog too has dismissed concerns over jobless growth, saying the real problem is underemployment rather than unemployment. Nevertheless, this month the government set up a high-level task force headed by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya to obtain reliable data on employment trends to aid policymaking.

The focus on jobs is obviously vital. However, higher economic growth alone will not solve the jobs problem. Jobs can be created when growth comes from the transition of labour from informal sectors like agriculture to the more formal manufacturing and service sectors. Such extensive growth, however, runs the risk of stagnation once the available stock of informal labour is exhausted — as some Southeast Asian countries found out the hard way in the late 1990s. On the other hand, growth can come about without any substantial job-creation in the formal sectors of the economy, but through improvements in productivity. The growth record of several developed economies even after the modernisation of their labour force explains such intensive growth. India should aim at growth that is driven both by improvements in productivity and modernisation of its labour force — especially since better jobs are crucial to improving the lives of millions who are employed, indeed underemployed, in low-paying jobs in the farm sector. Ironically, achieving both those objectives will first require labour reforms — ones that can both boost labour mobility within the formal sector and bring down the barriers businesses face in hiring labour. But incremental labour reforms alone won’t work unless these are combined with a step-up in government spending on asset and job-creating areas such as infrastructure, which in turn inspires private investment. Job-creation needs to be an essential axis along which economic and social policies are formulated.

Source: The Hindu, 19-05-2017

Over 23 lakh in race for 368 peons' posts in UP

Shailvee Sharda

Lucknow:





255 PhDs, Over 2 Lakh Graduates Among Hopefuls

When the Uttar Pradesh government advertised for posts of 368 peons on August 11, it couldn't have guessed the response would be so overwhelming.More than 23 lakh applications have poured in -over 6,250 per post. Among the applicants are over 2 lakh graduates or those with higher degrees like BTech, MSc and MCom. The applicants also include some 255 youths with PhDs.
The minimum qualification for the post was Class V pass but only 53,000 of the candidates who'd applied had not studied beyond Class V .
Uttar Pradesh has a dismal employment scenario.According to a National Sample Survey Organisation report released in 2013, around 1.32 crore people in the state in the 15-35 years age group are unemployed.
Prabhat Mittal, secretary of the secretariat administration department, which holds the appointment process, said candidates had to apply online and the last date was September 14. “On Tuesday, we were shocked to see the response,“ said Mittal. The numbers have put the fate of the recruitment process in a limbo, at least for some time. As per Sachivalaya Group D Recruitment and Service Rules ,1983, appointment for the post of peon is through direct interview.
But, if these 23 lakh candidates make a beeline, direct interview would take four and a half years even if the interviews went on 24X7.
The matter was reported to the state government on Wednesday . Accordingly , chief secretary Alok Ranjan constituted a sub-committee comprising officials from department of personnel, finance and law to suggest a formula for rejection so that the numbers may be reduced. Mittal, who heads the committee, would hold the first meeting on Thursday.
The job of a peon in UP government fetches a take home salary of Rs 16,000 per month.But beside this, candidates have their reasons for applying. “It's better to work as a peon than to wander without a job,“ said Alok, an applicant who holds a PhD. Graduate Ratan Yadav added, “There is nothing wrong in taking up menial work if it gives you an earning and keeps your self respect intact.“
Another applicant Rekha Verma said it was better to serve water to officials than to lead a life of dependency . “If you are jobless, you eventually seek help from relatives or friends... but for how long can one survive on the kindness of well-wishers,“ she said.
For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com

Source: The Times of India, 17-09-2015

Our young are not being properly educated and trained for jobs

A recent news report in Hindustan Times said that in Chhattisgarh for 30 vacancies of peons, a total of 75,000 applications were received. The authorities were ill-prepared to conduct an examination for such a huge number of candidates and, therefore, it was cancelled.

The minimum educational qualification was Class 5 pass. However, several applicants were engineers and post-graduates in arts and science.

This raises some important issues. The first is about the availability of appropriate job opportunities for the youth. Clearly, all the economic growth that the country has seen has not really translated into a commensurate number of jobs for the youth.

This implies that we have witnessed high economic growth with low job creation. The second issue is about the fairness of the process of job selection. Since the number of available jobs is few and the number of aspirants is high, the demand-supply gap distorts the situation and makes it prone to patronage and rent-seeking behaviour. That the process of selection is fair and impartial is of utmost importance; otherwise, it would lead to tremendous dissatisfaction among the unsuccessful candidates.

Another issue is about the quality of education being imparted to students which may sound impressive, but entails no employability. The standard of education being imparted in some of the public sector institutions of higher learning and most of the private sector institutions leaves much to be desired.

We have common entrance tests for professional courses at the Class 12 level, but do not have a common test in which obtaining a minimum score should be a must for gaining a professional degree.

The final issue and the real elephant in the room is about population stabilisation.

UN Population Division estimates say that the population of India has crossed 1.31 billion in 2015 whereas the population of China is a little above 1.37 billion at the moment.

We are happy to talk about the great demographic dividend that we are likely to reap due to a burgeoning young population, but we forget what a lot of people have been telling us for some years now. We have 817 million people in the age group of 15-59 in 2015 and we will have more than 929 million in 2025 in this age group.

This is the productive age group which is looking for jobs in the economy. Can we adequately educate and train them for emerging jobs and occupations? At the moment, there is no reason to be optimistic on this count.

(Amit Mohan Prasad is an IAS officer. The views expressed are personal)

EPF may be cut on entire pay package, not just basic

Sidhartha

New Delhi:





The government is looking at sweeping changes to the law governing Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and has suggested doing away with the mandatory 12% contribution by employees in certain cases, while retaining the employers' share.At the same time, the labour ministry is expanding the scope of wages beyond the basic salary to include all allowances, such as those paid for authorized leave, strikes and layoffs or other allowances that are paid at intervals not exceeding two months.
The move proposed in the draft legislation, circulated internally , was proposed a couple of years ago as well but had to be dropped after industry chambers protested against it, citing higher salary burden on companies.
The Centre is now trying to reintroduce the proposal, which will result in higher transfer to the provident fund but will reduce the takehome salary . This can be tackled by allowing employees in certain industry segments or companies -to be notified by the government -to make lower contribution.
The draft legislation also seeks to increase the coverage of EPF to companies that employ less than 20 employees, again a proposal that has been discussed in the past.
Further, there are also proposals to strengthen the appellate tribunal, tone up recovery in case of defaulting companies and increase the penalty that can be levied.
The draft bill has run up against a wall of protest from trade unions, which fear a decline in their influence. A source familiar with the proposals said the government has suggested that the structure of the EPF Organization's Central Board of Trustees be reworked with five representatives each of employers and employees and two external experts. It also wants to restrict the tenure of board members to two consecutive terms.
As a result, the unions are now demanding “detailed discussions“ on the bill with representatives from the labour and finance ministries.

Oct 21 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Merchant gifts cars, flats, jewels to staff for Diwali

Melvyn ReggieThomas

Surat





The liquidity crisis may have dampened the spirits of the diamond industry this year but it's going to be a glittering festival of lights for nearly 1,200 employees of Harikrishna Exports, a Rs 6,000-crore diamond firm in Surat.Company chairman Savji Dholakia surprised his artisans and engineers on Sunday by asking them to choose from car, flat and jewellery as their performance incentive.The employees qualified in what the company calls a “loyalty programme“. Around 500 staffers opted for a brand new Fiat Punto, 570 for jewellery and 207 chose a flat.
“All my dreams have come true through my workers,“ said Dholakia. “A target was set for the artisans and engineers and they achieved it.This is a big day for the entire Harikrishna family . We're the first company in the world to offer performance incentive valued at around Rs 3.60 lakh to each of the 1,200 diamond workers,“ he added.
Dholakia said his firm paid Rs 50 crore worth of incentive to the workers this year. The company had started the “loyalty programme“ in 2011. In the first year, three artisans were gifted cars.Last year, around 72 artisans were given cars for achieving their annual targets.
Jignesh Makwana, 39, a diamond artisan in the company , said, “I received a car as gift last year. So, this year when I qualified in the incentive scheme, I opted for a flat.“
Another staffer, Mehul Asalaliya, an engineer said, “I opted for jewellery as I have a car and a house. I will gift the jewellery to my wife.“
Savji Kaka, as Dholakia is called in diamond circles, came to Surat in the late 1970s in search of a job without a penny in his pocket. He borrowed money to start off the diamond business on a small level. After years of struggle, he established Harikrishna Exports in 1992.
“The average monthly earning of each of my artisans and engineers is Rs 1 lakh. There's an artisan who earns Rs 3.49 lakh. Artisans are the backbone of our industry and we have set an example by giving them the highest wages,“ he said.





Jul 31 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Employment Growing at Double the Rate of Population: Economic Census

NEW DELHI OUR BUREAU





Uttar Pradesh was the top employment generator among big states in eight years ended 2013, creating jobs at over double the national average rate, according to the Sixth Economic Census released on Wednesday.The number of employed in the country rose 34.35% in eight years to 12.77 crore. “That means that it had grown at an annual rate of over 4% when the population is growing at 2%,” National Statistical Commission chairman Pronab Sen said while releasing the report.

The census does not include employment in agriculture, public administration, defence and compulsory social security services activities. The employment growth would have been lower if these sectors were included.

In Uttar Pradesh, the number of employed rose over 75% during the same period. It was fourth overall in job creation, behind Manipur, Assam and Sikkim. Gujarat was placed ninth.

Maharashtra was the biggest employer, accounting for 11.26% jobs in the country, followed by Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
About a quarter of work force nationally were women. The activities covered in the Sixth Economic Census have a share of about 86% in total GDP of the country.
The economic census results will be used for GDP calculation as well, as this helps with the small and unorganised sector manufacturing data, said an official at the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi).

“We will use it to carry out enterprise surveys, used by us for GDP calculation,” he said.

The provisional sixth economic census results showed there were 58.47 million establishments in the country engaged in different economic activities, excluding crop production, plantation, public administration, defence and compulsory social security services.

There was 41.7% rise in number of establishments.

Nearly 60% of these establishments were in rural areas.

Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra
The provisional sixth economic cen sus results showed there were 58.47 mil lion establishments in the country en gaged in different ec onomic activities, excluding crop pro duction, plantation, public administra tion, defence and compulsory social security services.
There was 41.7% rise in number of estab lishments.
Nearly 60% of these establishments were in rural areas.
Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh together accounted for about 48% of the total number of establishments in the country. The average employment per establishment, however, fell in the eight year period from 2.3 to 2.1 worker.
“This suggests that employment opportunities may be declining despite increase in establishments.

Labor-intensive activities may be on a decline,” said the official.

Northeastern states reported significant jump in both the number of establishments and employment creation, suggesting improvement in economic activities. Manipur saw a 109.37% increase in the number of establishments between 2005 and 2013.

In terms of growth in the last eight years of establishments, against a national average of 41.73%. The newly formed state Telangana experienced a 79% jump in eight years.

UP housed 11.36% of country’s total establishments, followed by Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Since these are just provisional estimates, they do not provide activity-wise or size-wise break up of data. For the first time, data for handloom and handicraft was included in the economic census, which accounted for 3.75% of the total establishments of the country.

Jul 31 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

34% jump in job growth in 8 yrs: Census

New Delhi: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





The number of people employed in the country rose by 34.35% to 12.77 crore in eight years to 2013, reveals the Sixth Economic Census-2013.The employment in urban areas increased by 37.46% to 6.14 crore, while in rural India the growth was 31.59% to 6.62 crore between 2005 and 2013.

The proportion of women in total workforce increased to 25.56% in 2013 from about 20% in 2005. In urban areas, the proportion of female
workers was 19.8% compared to 30.9% in rural areas.
The economic census does not include those employed in agriculture, public administration, defense and compul sory social security services activities. Among the states, Maharashtra was on top of the ladder with maximum number of employees at 1.43 crore, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 1.37 crore, West Bengal at 1.15 crore, Tamil Nadu 1.08 crore and Gujarat at 90.63 lakh.
Among the Union Territories, Delhi has the maximum number of employees at 29.84 lakh followed by Chandigarh at 2.38 lakh and Puducherry at 2.17 lakh.

In terms of percentage growth in total employment during the period, number of
workers grew at higher rate of 83.29% in Manipur, followed by 78.84% in Assam, 77.14% in Sikkim, 75.26% in Uttar Pradesh and 68.81% in Himachal Pradesh.
On findings of the survey, National Statistical Commission chairman Pronab Sen said, “The growth in employment at 34% in eight years is a good rate. That means that it had grown at an annual rate of over 4% when the population is growing at 2%.“ The country's population was over 121 crore in 2011, according to 2011 Population Census.

Jul 21 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Empowering Indian youth

By Madhu Khatri





More young Indians need the right infrastructure to develop skills

By 2020, India's population is expected to become the world's youngest; more than 500 million Indian citizens will be under 25 years of age and more than two thirds of the population will be eligible to work. This means that a growing number of India's youth need the right educational infrastructure to develop skills and adequate opportunities to get employed or become entrepreneurs.
However, the wide gap between those who have access to education and skill development opportunities and those who do not, is a challenge that has to be overcome.In a bid to bridge this gap, Microsoft launched a series of programmes and initiatives that focus on developing the potential of the youth. Microsoft's YouthSpark Programme, a company-wide, global initiative, aims to provide opportunities that will impact 300 million youth over three years. In India, the programme will train 80,000 youths, help 65,000 in acquiring employment and aid 15,000 of them in starting their enterprise. Similarly, Project Oorja and Sakshartha are two youth-centric platforms that aim to cultivate the spirit of innovation by equipping Indian youth from the ITIs, polytechnics and marginalised sections with essential IT skills.
Unemployed youth, marginalised women and rural communities have also been impacted by the company's input -imparting IT skills training and in stilling basic computer literacy.
These skills enable the marginalised demographic to explore employment opportunities and sustainable livelihood options. Microsoft's partnerships with governments, non-profits and businesses have resulted in such initiatives, which connect young people to greater education, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities. The project works to make them eligible for jobs that were not open or available to them earlier, while also encouraging entrepreneurship to foster the creation of additional jobs in their communities. Since 2004, through 1,425 learning centres in India, more than 4,70,000 youth have been trained under it and over 70% placed in jobs. Since December 2012, the project has helped start more than 600 youth enterprises.
Cultivating and encouraging innovative entrepreneurs is the ultimate goal of these initiatives. One revealing example is of 22-year-old Vasanti, from western Gujarat, who enrolled in the YouthSpark -iLEAD (Institute for Livelihood, Education and Development) programme run by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, a partner organisation. The programme taught Vasanti the basics of operating computers after which she enrolled in the advanced course. However, Vasanti realised that the lack of jobs in areas near her home would be a problem. She decided to acquire a computer, under a government scheme, with which she opened a computer training centre in her single-room house, creating access to computer education for other local women.
Says Vasanti, “Why should the girls in our villages suffer because the training centres are far away? If they cannot travel to the centre, then I will make sure that the centre travels to them.“ She now plans to acquire more computers and expand her training centre to other villages.
Technology has a potential to change the world and improve people's lives. Vasanti's story demonstrates the incredible spirit of a youth-led enterprise and initiative, demonstrating how being empowered and encouraged can help an individual realise their full potential.
Vasanti not only created an opportunity for herself, but also impacted the lives of others in her community.
(The author is associate general counsel, Microsoft India)

75% INDIAN ASPIRANTS GOT TEMP JOBS IN 2012: STUDY

Sovon Manna TNN 

Kolkata: Only 12% job seekers in India got a permanent recruitment in 2012 while as many as 75% of aspirants were placed in temporary agency jobs and the rest found other services as their livelihood, says a study carried out by Staffing Industry Analysts, the global adviser on contingent work. The exclusive study pegs the Indian staffing market at around Rs 26,650 crore. 
    According to the study, the Indian labour market is unique as approximately 90% of Indians work in the unorganixed or ‘informal’ sector and only 10% work in the organized or ‘formal’ sector. Of those working in the organized sector, a large proportion (68%) are employed in the public sector. The unorganized or ‘informal’ sector jobs include home-based work, selfemployment, employment in household enterprises, small units, on land as agricultural workers, labour on construction sites and a myriad of other forms of casual or temporary employment. The recruitment and revenue figures have been calculated in the study for the calendar year 2012 because Indian companies will release financial figures after the fiscal ends in March 2014. 
    Replying to an e-mailed query, Adam Pode, director (international research) at California-based Staffing Industry Analysts, told TOI, “There is nothing ominous in the temporary job market having the lion’s share of the staffing industry. This is similar to all the largest staffing markets in the world and shows the sophistication of the Indian market. Employers understand the importance of temporary workers to aid them through the peaks and trough of the economy.” 
    According to the study, Bangalore-based Adecco topped the list of HR solutions firms in India with Rs 1,460 crore in revenue and a 5.5% market share pipping India-headquartered Team-Lease, which is also based in Bangalore. According to the study, the top-three firms account for approximately 15% of the total market and the top-ten firms 26% with the remaining 75% or 20,000 staffing companies — mostly niche or boutique firms employ the rest.

Source :::: The Times of India, 04-03-2014, p.19,  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2014/03/04&PageLabel=19&EntityId=Ar01905&ViewMode=HTML