New Delhi: Ahead of general elections, massive job cuts in labour-intensive industries are giving UPA government the heebie-jeebies. Exports for January have nosedived by 22% and projections indicate that up to one crore persons could lose jobs in the current fiscal ending March.
The export sector data flowing in has increased pressure on the government which has been trying to spur domestic demand to offset decline in overseas orders ever since the global economic slowdown kicked in around September last year. Based on order books, industry inputs predicted a crore of job losses, an estimate that has worried the government.
Aware that the economy might become an election issue, Congress’s draft manifesto has promised greater employment and populist schemes. If the bad news of the economy gets worse, these claims will sound less than convincing. Ficci found that faced with a slump and piled up inventories, industries like textiles, garments, chemicals and gems and jewellery had cut production by 10-50%.
The commerce ministry, through surveys carried out by its own field officials recently, found over one lakh people had already lost jobs up to January 15 in just the 400 units examined. The one crore figure has been compiled by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations which says it has carried out an intensive survey. Ajai Sahai, director general of Fieo, told TOI that textile, garments and handicraft sectors were the worst affected.
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