Union Minister for Petroleum and Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri hailed a study by the State Bank of India (SBI), which claimed that as many as 12.5 crore jobs were created in the Indian economy during the fiscal years of 2014-24, marking a four-fold jump from the 2004-2014 period, which saw the creation of about 2.9 crore jobs.

He also expressed happiness over the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) registering a total employment generation of about 20 crore in the small scale industry, as per data shared by the Udyam portal.

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Notably, the post-2014 period, when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister for the first time, has been described by the BJP as an era of high-growth when the country jumped from the 11th fastest-growing to 5th fastest growing nation and also a period when slew of reforms unshackled the economy from various restraints.

The ten years from 2004-2014, under UPA-I and UPA-II also saw above 8 per cent economic growth.

However, multiple scams coupled with policy paralysis overshadowed the growth markers in this decade.

Hardeep Puri said that the mushrooming of jobs and employment opportunities in the 2014-24 period is a commendable move and expressed hope that similar job numbers will reflect in government data, in the next few years.

He said that the Indian economy was moving at a trailblazing speed, heading towards the $5 trillion mark and hence there was a need to commensurate growth with skilled manpower.

He also addressed the shortage of skilled manpower and said that it was a matter of worry that top human resource was being tapped by multinational firms from the Gulf or Europe.

He said that many of the highly-trained people were absorbed by these MNCs, creating a shortage back home.

Quoting a top industry captain, the L&T chairman, the minister said that there was shortage of about 45,000 skilled workers and this was apparently one of the reasons for projects not getting completed on time.

Further recalling his experience as the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs in Modi 2.0, he said that he used to connect with CREDA and other organisations on how to retain the skilled and semi-skilled labour and also on cultivating a fresh batch of trained professionals.

“When you advertise for skilled labour, you get minimal applications but there are lakhs of applications in the unskilled category,” he recalled.