Claims About Increased Unemployment Exaggerated, Says Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar

New Delhi, Nov 26: Days after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi questioned the centre over increased unemployment, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Sunday said the claims about fewer employm

New Delhi, Nov 26: Days after Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi questioned the centre over increased unemployment, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Sunday said the claims about fewer employment opportunities are exaggerated. Kumar said the government registered increased opportunities in the services sector and other indices too does not prove the claim. Kumar even emphasised that government recorded an increase in the number of EFPO account holders.

“Let me say that the lack of employment story, I think, is quite exaggerated,” Kumar said. “The number of EPFO accounts have increased, the number of National Pension System (NPS) accounts have increased… (There is a) significant jump in the number of employees within the services sector, especially in tourism, civil aviation, transport and services sector, PTI quoted Kumar as saying.

Kumar said the government needs to consolidate reforms like Goods and Services Tax (GST), Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and the flagship schemes like Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to get desired results. However, he emphasised Prime Minister Narendra Modi should focus on social sectors like education and health in next 18 months of the government.

“We should now focus on their successful completion except in social sector where some steps need to be taken on public health and public education system fronts,” he added.

Asked why private investments are not picking up, he pointed out that most people use only the figure of credit offtake on public sector banks (PSBs) as the proxy for private sector investment.

“But if you look at credit offtake on private sector banks, it has now risen quite well…Finally also number of initial public offers (IPOs) have been higher than previous year. So if you look at all things taken together, the picture is not at all bad,” Kumar observed.