The government is embarking on a Rs 1-lakh-crore plan to set up mega national employment zones across the country with the aim to provide direct and indirect jobs to one crore youth over next three years. 

As per an ET report, the proposal, which is being given the final shape by the shipping ministry in consultation with the NITI Aayog, is expected to be rolled out ahead of general elections next year and could help the government to reaffirm its commitment towards job creation. 

The report quoted top government sources stating that the employment zones will have fiscal and non-fiscal incentives like tax holidays, capital subsidy and single-window clearance among others. These incentives will be linked directly to the number of jobs created by firms willing to set up manufacturing bases in these zones. 

The shipping ministry has proposed setting up 14 national employment zones to be built in coastal states under the special purpose vehicle route. These zones are expected to have 35 industrial clusters across sectors like food, cement, furniture and electronics besides traditional labour intensive sectors like garments, leather and gems and jewelry.

As per initial estimates, setting up the requisite infrastructure in these zones could require Rs 1 lakh crore, which will be shared by the Centre and states with the latter providing at least 2,000 acres of  land for setting up such zones in each of the identified state. 

Besides, India can also seek funding from multilateral agencies for the mega project going forward as it estimates these zones to attract an investment of up to Rs 4 lakh crore.

The BJP government came up with various schemes to boost the job sectors such as Make in India, Mudra Loan Scheme, Swach Bharat, Digital India, Skill India, and many others. The objective of all these schemes was to create jobs either directly or indirectly and to boost the employment in India. However, the country is still witnessing one of the significant job crisis ever. According to the ILO report number of jobless in the country will increase to 18.3 million in 2018 and 18.9 million in 2019.