A million jobs in 18 months, Prime Minister Modi's directive to government departments

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked government departments and ministries to recruit 10 lakh people within the next 1.5 years on "mission mode".

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) took to Twitter to reveal that PM Modi issued the directions after reviewing the status of Human Resources in all departments and ministries.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur said these 10 lakh jobs would include all government departments and that all departments have been directed to begin recruitments soon.

Meanwhile, sources said these jobs might comprise both contractual and regular employment.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari lauded the government's move and said the move will boost manpower in the government-related services delivery and enhance productivity in administration.

Commerce minister Piyush Goyal said the youth will have a major contribution in developing modern India.

The government's decision came amid the Opposition's frequent criticism of it on the issue of unemployment. A large number of vacant posts in different government sectors has often been flagged.

The unemployment rate in India stands at 7.3 percent as of June 14, data from the independent think-tank, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), reveals. The urban employment rate was higher at 7.8 percent and the rural at 7 percent.

As per the CMIE data, the highest unemployment was seen at Haryana at 24.6 percent followed by Rajasthan at 22.2 percent. The think-tank had earlier said that India’s growth rate was "inadequate to create enough jobs in the economy and that the government needed to intervene".

In an interview with CNBC-TV18 in May, CMIE MD & CEO Mahesh Vyas said: "People have left the labour markets. They are saying that there are no jobs. But even the few people who are left behind are not able to find jobs. So, there is a fall in the labour participation rate, and simultaneously there is an increase in the unemployment rate."

The Indian government and ministries will be carrying out the recruitments even as many nations of the world are staring at recession fears and inflation has shot through the roof. Usually, during a recession, a lot of people tend to lose their jobs.

The US May CPI came in much higher than expected at 8.6 percent — the fastest increase since 1981. The very high 0.63 percent month-on-month (MoM) increase in core inflation was another surprise. US consumer price index is a closely watched inflation gauge.

In India, retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May eased to 7.04 percent as against 7.79 percent in April but remained above the RBI's upper tolerance level for the fifth consecutive month.