India's high unemployment is a 'ticking bomb,' opposition says, as election battle with Modi's BJP heats up

Key Facts

India’s position on the global value chain is shifting due to government incentives and a digitally savvy economy Getty Premiums NEW DELHI — As India gears up for the second phase of its general elections, the issue of unemployment is increasingly taking centerstage, with opposition leader Rahul Gandhi charging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling BJP of making the country “a center of unemployment.”
The country’s unorganized sector has still not recovered from the impact of demonetization, Arun Kumar, economist and a former professor at New Delhi-based Jawahar Lal Nehru university told CNBC, adding it was one of the key reasons for the high unemployment in the country.
With increasing mechanization, job creation in India has become capital-intensive, with a smaller number of workers employed between 2019 and 2000 than in the 1990s, according to the ILO-IHD report.
Even though unemployment is at the front and center of voters’ mind and has been the key issue raised by the opposition parties to put the ruling BJP on the backfoot, a whole host of surveys have shown that Modi will likely win this election with another strong mandate.