A group of senior industry leaders has launched the Hundred Million Jobs mission, a national initiative aimed at creating 100 million jobs in India over the next decade, as concerns mount over weak employment growth despite a fast-expanding economy.
The initiative was announced on Monday by Harish Mehta, co-founder of the technology industry body Nasscom, AJ Patel, founder of the global entrepreneurship network TiE, and K Yatish Rajawat, founder of the Centre for Innovation in Public Policy, Asianet Newsable reported.
India adds an estimated 12 million people to its working-age population each year. To capitalise on its demographic advantage, the country needs to generate 8 to 9 million jobs annually. However, employment growth has lagged, particularly as traditional job engines such as manufacturing fail to scale and automation and artificial intelligence reduce entry-level roles.
The Hundred Million Jobs mission seeks to address this gap by focusing on entrepreneurship, reskilling and the expansion of micro, small and medium enterprises. Mehta said the initiative aims to strengthen entrepreneurs and MSMEs, positioning them as job creators rather than job seekers.
Small and micro enterprises already contribute about 30 per cent of India’s gross domestic product and employ a significant share of the workforce. Patel said job creation would require scaling these businesses beyond major cities, arguing that wider geographic spread is essential to sustain employment growth of nearly 9 million jobs a year.
Rajawat described employment as a “systems challenge”, saying meaningful progress would require changes in mindset across government, business and civil society, according to Asianet Newsable.
The mission has drawn support from prominent figures across industry and public policy. Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar, former McKinsey senior partner Rajat Gupta and Fractal co-founder Srikanth Velamakanni are among those who have signed the initiative’s charter.
Organised as a non-profit effort in collaboration with the Centre for Innovation in Public Policy, the Hundred Million Jobs mission plans to work with policymakers, entrepreneurs and educators to translate its employment targets into sustained outcomes on the ground.