Resources aplenty, no jobs: 

Resources aplenty, no jobs: 

Context

The inevitable widespread adoption of next generation technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence etc  indicates a future of mass unemployment, and concentration of wealth in the hands of a few enterprises capable of providing minuscule job openings.

Some facts

• Five high-technology firms find themselves among the list of the top seven most valuable companies in the world, employ approx 700,000 people only among them.
• The Labour Bureau stating that India added just 1.35 lakh jobs in eight labour-intensive sectors in 2015, against a backdrop of almost 1.5 crore annually entering the job market

Impact

• May  create of a plenitude of frustrated people who would be easy prey to the sway of radical nationalists and populists.
• It will decrease demand of low skilled labour.
• It will lead to concentration of wealth in few hands.
• It will create inverse relationship between economy and employment.
• It will create great demand for vocational education.

Way forward

• In india the informal economy employs more than 90% of our workforce. Efforts to structure the informal sector, by encouraging them to adopt modern-day tools and best practices, and by giving them adequate access to capital for expansion, would stimulate the economy and the job market.
• India has massive basic infrastructural capacity requirements. Government should  plan and spend, along with the creation of an environment that would encourage private investments into these potentially large-scale projects, that could create immediate openings for millions in sectors like construction, India’s second largest employer.
• If leveraged to create essential and permanent assets, employment-guaranteeing schemes like MGNREGA would also effectively absorb a large slice of job seekers.

Conclusion

Redefining the existing economic planning, employment and resource-allocation models, to get them in sync with this technology-accelerated age, is the need of the hour.

Causes of unemployment Economic growth not adequate with employment opportunity Over-population Low industrialisation Immobility of labour High use of technology for mass production Schemes related to employment Make in India Startup India Smart cities Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) National Skill Development Mission Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY)