Can Modi sustain India’s growth miracle? | DW News

[Music] can it work can India's economy hold up India's economy grew massively over the past 10 years as in this 2024 election a lot is about that growth but who will benefit from these gains in this piece we will ask whether India can sustain the growth of the past and what obstacles lie Ahad head because many are betting on the story to continue India is the place to be despite the growth of story India is facing a massive job crisis when it comes to job even the experienced people are struggling they make the machines that help build our world shwing St is a symbol of India's construction boom originally a German company they are now owned by a Chinese conglomerate an industry leader in construction equipment once the assembly is completed it is taken for testing and then it is taken for painting to the paint shop according to the company Schwing St India Today employs 2,700 people at five factories and they expect to grow over the coming years as we speak the that factory is also reached the full capacity in terms of uh what installed capacity and uh we are going for another new project uh around the same place uh where we are investing another 50 acres of land the construction sector has made up about 10% of India's economic output in the past years adding housing streets and airports to the economy we need construction we need more infrastructure we need more transport we need more energy and other logistics for sure but looking only at that is Never Enough let's come back to what jti Goos is saying here in a minute and let's zoom out real quick India's growth story is remarkable growing on average by 7% in the past but the World Bank forecast for the next couple of years is slightly below those numbers of the past so what's the problem with construction in regard to growth most construction especially large scale construction doesn't generate too many new jobs and real wages have been falling in this sector the Indian government is spent massively on infrastructure and the sector has been an engine for growth some experts say the government did a good job with that but let's look at another sector that has grown in the past and that Narendra Modi promises to expand if reelected the it sector is at the core of modi's agenda to generate growth in the coming years here at sap in bangaluru they work on the future of conducting business the global software company just expanded to a second campus in the city and employs more than 15,000 people in India but while they win prices for being a great employer they still struggle to find the staff they need for us is very important that our talent whom we hire as a product company needs to have bring that strong interplay of Technology as well as business skills and finding the um those skills right from University sometimes can be a challenge sap houses its largest research and development unit here in b luru they develop new ways of interacting with users driving the research that allows for future economic growth but India as a whole seems to be falling behind in comparison to its peers public is spending on R&D in reference to GDP decrease the government says this is due to larger growth in the economy some companies work with the government and universities to get ahead but it is a strange situation the government incentivizes growth in the tech sector but the tech sector doesn't deliver growth for everyone in India in particular it fails to generate the amount of jobs needed for the millions of University graduates who struggle to find work even the students of the most prominent Indian universities face this Outlook when it comes to job even the experienced people are struggling priv but anyway we don't have many prospects of jobs unless you want to you know work like uh 12 hours a day and then you know get such a minimum sort of a salary it is no wonder that a lot of young people are disenchanted by their job prospects taking a look at this data young Indians are more likely to be unemployed if they have more education that's something that makes sense because pressures to work May simply be higher if you have little education what is staggering is that the most recent numbers show that especially for the very well educated this trend has picked up in 20122 nearly 29% of young adults with graduate degrees or above were unemployed the econ economy is flourishing but it's not flourishing for everyone it is flourishing for a small minority but the rest they are still sort of struggling or you know they're kind of stuck there is one strategy for generating growth that the government is placing much hope on drawing in outside investment after lowering labor standards and import tariffs for electric vehicles American EV maker Tesla is now considering a plant in India and iPhone maker Apple remains bullish a lot of outside money has come to India over the past 20 years but overall foreign direct Investments have dropped recently and some experts expect a further Decline and the government has been slow to liberalize trade with other countries lastly many investors are moving their money towards the United States right now raising questions about how outside Capital will grow Manufacturing in India if you look at how much the whole manufacturing industry has contributed to overall economic growth over time you can see that it has stagnated and even decreased in the past few years that contrast with countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam which have picked up manufacturing shares from companies that have left fact factores in China in the past decade but there are more problems ahead that a future government will have to tackle for one even if India's economy keeps growing the growth may put lives at risk as this very growth contributes to global warming India is now the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases although in per capita terms the country is way far down the list let's focus on emissions from constru tion which are high because coal powered electricity is used on site and in making cement pollution is at the core of construction as a producer for the industry it's a problem they acknowledge at shwing sta Mr Shakti Kumar criticizes missing monitoring for dust pollution from construction sites to stop this type of activities we have launched products like a concrete recycling plant uh which can completely recycle the leftover concrete back to his elements and he can use them in production but there is another headwind that brings us back to the missing jobs despite growth in India India's female labor force participation rate has always been lower than International levels and even though historically in the other countries it has risen with economic growth in the Indian case it has been going down in the past uh two decades or so if half of your population in a country where gender discrimination is so acute doesn't join the labor force you are suppressing your GDP automatically there is still some work to be done and India seems to be able to keep growing but what could help to turn that growth into more growth for all now what can completely uh drive and exponentially drive that growth is really where corporates like us the um the Academia and the government work really together to make sure that our talent is really equipped with all the new age skills be AI skills be uh business skills so we need to support small and medium uh Enterprises um also support all labor intensive activities in rural areas and in urban areas um the road map is pretty clear but it require dramatically different cost correction the road for India's economy is paved with more growth right now investors feel confident and there is a lot of money to be made but it may just be growth for some so out of all the value added in the economy a very large share is going to profit and a very small share relatively is going to wages the international labor organization notes that employment conditions in India remain poor with around 90% of workers being informal so India May sustain its growth but possibly not everyone will benefit from its fruits that's it for this video on India's growth prospects we would like to know where you see yourself in this story do you think it can work out let us know in the comments

Channel: DW News

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Keywords: DW News, india economy, modi economy, india elections, india, india news, india growth

Id: xRCfdQ25AHs

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024