Employment-income mismatch in agri sector is a structural challenge for India, says HT's Roshan Kishore

Kishore said, "If you look at unemployment rates in India, they are less than four percent. Now, OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) unemployment rates are more than six percent and that does it mean the employment situation in India is actually better than in the developed world? It's not."

According to Kishore, the biggest problem is in the agricultural sector as more than 40 percent of workforce is still in farming.

Kishore said, "If we take a relative share in gross domestic product (GDP) and share in employment, then agriculture’s relative income share in this country has been stagnant around 0.4, which means that the share is disproportionately more and this has been so throughout the reform period."

However, the big reform promise was that the economic transformation will happen. In terms of GDP, it has happened. But in terms of employment, it's still sort of eludes the largest part of our workforce,” Kishore said, adding that unless we resolve that things are not going to change.

Talking on economy, he said, "For example, whether the GDP goes from 7.5 to 7.6 or 7.4 is a short term challenge. But can India embark upon a say sustained double digit growth that is a structural challenge."