“Even when inflation is at 5.1%, meals inflation is at 30%. For somebody spending 50% of their earnings on meals, that 30% meals inflation is hitting them considerably more durable regardless of authorities programmes like PM Gareeb Kalyan Yojana offering some aid,” Basu mentioned at a Delhi Faculty of Economics occasion to mark its 75 years of existence.
Basu, who served because the chief financial advisor to the central authorities beneath the United Progressive Alliance regime, additionally underscored the significance of the subsequent 10-15 years for decrease middle-income class nations resembling India to unleash the demand for labour.
“If the coverage is finished proper – and it’ll require revisiting India’s labour legal guidelines – India can unleash the demand for labour,” he mentioned.
AI-driven developments, whereas promising, pose important challenges to conventional labour markets, he mentioned. “If we do not act intelligently, AI and digital advances will drive out a number of conventional labour,” Basu mentioned. He cautioned that training alone will not remedy points resembling poverty and unemployment, particularly as technological developments like AI start to encroach on conventional jobs.
