India has to generate 8 million jobs per year for next 10-12 years: Chief Economic Advisor Nageswaran

Nageswaran was addressing the Columbia India Summit 2025 hosted by the Deepak and Neera Raj Centre on Indian Economic Policies at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

"We have a vision to achieve a developed India by 2047," Nageswaran said. (Representational image: Freepik)
"We have a vision to achieve a developed India by 2047," Nageswaran said. (Representational image: Freepik)

Press Trust of India | April 21, 2025 | 04:58 PM IST

NEW YORK: India has to generate 8 million jobs per year at least for the next 10-12 years and raise the share of manufacturing in GDP as it strives to achieve the vision of becoming a developed country by 2047, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India V Anantha Nageswaran said.

"We have a vision to achieve a developed India by 2047. The biggest challenge, apart from India's size, is that the external environment is not going to be so benign for the next 10-20 years as one might have had in the last 30 years, starting from 1990 or so,” Nageswaran said here Saturday.

“But within this context - that's a given, you can't choose your external environment beyond a point - we have to generate 8 million jobs per year at least for the next 10 to 12 years...And raise the manufacturing share of GDP, in the context of China having achieved such a tremendous manufacturing dominance, especially post-COVID,” he said.

Nageswaran was addressing the Columbia India Summit 2025 hosted by the Deepak and Neera Raj Centre on Indian Economic Policies at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Also read Government to release unemployment data every month starting May 15: Official

'AI may take away entry-level jobs'

He outlined that artificial intelligence, technology, and robotics are challenges that some of the developed countries of today do not have to face in their developmental journey.

"But India, with its size, has to navigate this huge, complex challenge, and there are no easy answers. If you look at the number of jobs we need to create, it’s about 8 million jobs a year. And Artificial Intelligence may have a big role in taking away entry-level jobs, or low IT-enabled services jobs may come under threat,” he said.

He added that it is one thing to prepare the population for a world dominated by AI, but it is another thing to ensure that “we find the right balance between labour-centric policies and technology, because technology at the end of the day is not just a choice to be made by technologists. It has to be made by public policymakers.”

Follow us for the latest education news on colleges and universities, admission, courses, exams, research, education policies, study abroad and more..

To get in touch, write to us at news@careers360.com.

Download Our App

Start you preparation journey for JEE / NEET for free today with our APP

  • Students300M+Students
  • College36,000+Colleges
  • Exams550+Exams
  • Ebooks1500+Ebooks
  • Certification16000+Certifications