Thursday, February 4, 2021

Take jobs to workers

 In past couple of years some state governments have announced reservation for local residents in private sector jobs. Some other states are also considering to implement similar provisions. Given that the word “reservation” itself is not liked by a large section of Indian population due to legacy reasons, this trend has evoked strong reactions from the businesses and job seekers from other state who fear losing out to the local population in these states.

Many issues like, Right to Equality, likely productivity loss due to lack of competent people, likely higher wage cost due to limited supply of qualified people within particular state, etc., have been raised by the concerned people. Concerns have been raised about flight of businesses to other states, further worsening the regional inequalities.

In my view, it is a very good idea, of implemented pragmatically. If the state governments work with the private entrepreneurs to develop the education, skill and training ecosystem in their respective states and provide fiscal incentives to businesses for giving preference to local people for their incremental job requirements, this stipulation could materially promote the regional equality and employability of youth. This shall also reduce the cost for businesses as they could move away from expensive concentrations like NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and hire good people at relatively lower cost. The investments being made in transportation infrastructure, Bullet Train, Economic Corridors, Dedicated Freight Corridors, Regional Airports etc. shall support efficient relocation of businesses to hinterlands.



However, if this is implemented as political opportunism, it may prove to be seriously counterproductive. In this context it is important to note that there are huge disparities in the rate of unemployment across various states. This disparity cannot be bridged without the active participation of private sector. Regional employment opportunities are also important from the view point of civic pressure on large cities due to migrant workers.

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