With focus on entrepreneurship, ease of doing business, education & skill building and infrastructure (an increase of Rs.70,000 cr from last year that will ably support Make in India), this year’s budget will help increase employment, encourage first generation entrepreneurship and take the first steps towards universal social security. Here are some industry reactions from our community on the budget: 

Reactions on Education & Skill Development

It is a welcome step that the focus of the Government is increasingly shifting from ‘Literacy’ and ‘Education’ to ‘Skill Development’ and ‘Educating to Employ’. India has an increasing number of ‘working’ population out of which hardly 37 percent are employable (Source: India Skills Report 2015 by PeopleStrong, Wheebox, CII & LinkedIn). “Initiatives like National Skills Mission for skill development and entrepreneurship (fund of 1,500 cr), focus on Skill India campaign and increasing the reach and quality of education will definitely speed up the progress on the path towards a skilled and employable workforce, and will work towards the ‘Quantum Jump’ that FM is looking for,” shares Pankaj Bansal, CEO & Co-Founder, PeopleStrong

“Jobs and Hiring in India needs to shift from being ‘qualification based’ to being ‘skill based’,” says Kamal Karanth, Managing Director of Kelly Services and OCG India. “Today almost every hiring done in India uses education and qualification as a surrogate for skill. This is a huge roadblock that the National Skills Mission needs to address. The launch of a National Skill Mission and aligning it with the ‘Make in India’ theme will lay the foundation for the country being in a position to emerge as the ‘Skills Capital’ of the world by 2022, the 75th year of our Independence. The rationalization of various legacy skill development schemes under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and making the Sector Skill Councils the fulcrum for all skill development-related initiatives will ensure that our youth receive industry-oriented training that will help them become employable.”

“In India the mismatch between available skills and industry expectations is humongous.  To achieve the targeted GDP growth rate we will need huge upgrades to ensure that we convert the demographic dividend into an ongoing bonus for the country.  I am glad that the government is continuing the focus on job creation through Skill India and an amendment to the Apprenticeship Act.  However, to be successful, it is execution of these that will matter.  Public Private Partnership model will need to be galvanized to ensure effective enhancement of skills across all professions in India,” shares Pallavi Jha, CMD, Dale Carnegie Training India. 

The setting up of AIIMS, IITs, IIMs and IT hubs across several states will help address the huge demand for IT jobs in India and the sector will see an increase in the talent pool. “This initiative shows an increased focus on employability of the youth by increasing organized workforce. These are good initiatives, though the challenge for the govt. will now be maintaining the standard of these new institutes so that the brand name of IITs and IIMs is not diluted,” shares Amol Arora, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Shemrock & Shemford Group of Schools.

Reactions on Self-Employment

The Rs. 1,000 crore fund on Self-Employment and Talent Utilisation (SETU) fund will see an unprecedented long-term project and has been welcomed by those looking to work with or establish startups, said Sanjoe Jose, CEO, Talview.com on Rs. 1,000 crore fund allocation for startups emphasized shares" He also stated, “The budget allocation for startups should be used to promote startups in tier 2 cities and beyond. This can lead to significant generation of quality employment at par with city counterparts for youngsters in these regions. Areas to be focused on should be technology, commerce and education/training”. 

India currently stands at no. 4 in the ‘largest startups nations in the world’ list; the SETU fund will strengthen the ground for the already-growing startups and e-commerce companies in the country. With government support for startups coming in, Managing Director of Kelly Services and OCG India, Kamal Karanth said, “There is a need for startup founders to think differently for growth and sustainability. This would require entrepreneur capability development to be addressed simultaneously.”

Reactions on Job Creation

Increased investment in sectors such as manufacturing in Auto and defense equipment will open job avenues and steer economic growth and overall development. Furthermore there are more incentives for the youth to join formal employment. 

“By giving employees a 3 way salary choice on whether they would like to contribute to their PF/ EPFO or not, whether they would like the employers contribution to go to EPFO or NPS and whether they would like to make their ESIC contribution to ESIC or to any IRDA regulated Insurance, our Finance Minister in this year’s budget has created incentives for our youth to join the formal sector and curb the decade old trend of the growing informal workforce. Indian Staffing Federation believes that this move would actually contribute to formal job creation and change the life of youth in ways that no amount of subsidy or more rights can. The outlay on infrastructure, greater empowerment for states , clear roadmap around taxation and fiscal policies, moving away from prior permissions to pre-set regulatory polices to enable setting shop in India are in line with making ‘Make in India’ a reality and are highly commendable. The ambition of hitting a double digit growth trajectory is exactly the kind of positivity the economy needs and we need to make it a reality,” shares Rituparna Chakraborty, President, Indian Staffing Federation, Co-Founder & Senior Vice President, TeamLease.