Modi to express concerns over 'jobless growth' at G-20 summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will express his concerns over “jobless growth” in his interventions at the upcoming G-20 summit in Australia to emphasise that economic progress should also create employment.

The prime minister told his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott on Friday that growth in economic output without creation of much jobs was a matter of concern for India.
“Focusing on transforming the quality of life of people, not just on issues like the health of the financial markets, is necessary to create employment-generating economic growth,” a press release issued by his office said.

Abbott called up Modi to discuss the agenda for the G-20 summit, which is scheduled to take place at Brisbane in Australia from November 14 to 16.

Suresh Prabhu, the chief point-person of the Modi Government for the G-20 summit, said that jobless growth had emerged as a global phenomenon and New Delhi was particularly concerned about it.

“We have been seeing a very interesting aspect of the global economy. The economy expanded but did not result in creation of jobs. So, what we call jobless growth is a global phenomenon. We want not only growth in economic output measured by GDP, but also creation of more employment,” said Prabhu. “Therefore, this is one of the major social issues that we have been talking about.”