PM Modi forms 2 high-level panels to spur growth, jobs

New Delhi: With the spectre of slowdown haunting the economy and rising unemployment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday constituted two new Cabinet committees under his chairmanship to spur economic growth and investment and employment.

The five-member Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth includes Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Road Transport and Highways and of MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.

Another 10-member Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development has been formed which includes Shah, Sitharaman, Goyal, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Narendra Singh Tomar, Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister Skill and Entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandey and Ministers of State Santosh Kumar Gangwar (Labour) and Hardeep Singh Puri (Housing and Urban Affairs).

Economy has become a major cause of concern for the new government with GDP dropping to 5.8 per cent in the last quarter of the 2018-19, according to NSSO figures. Overall GDP for last financial year has been estimated at 6.8 per cent against a target of 7.2 per cent.

On the employment front, just after the elections were over, the government released the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) - Annual Report (July 2017-July 2018), which pegged the unemployment rate at 6.1 per cent, the highest in 45 years.

Both these panels will be feeding into the policy-making initiatives of the Modi Cabinet, which has 24 Cabinet ministers and nine Ministers of State with Independent charge. The key Cabinet decisions that team Modi 2.0 will have to take in the near term include a new industrial policy, ecommerce policy as well as a new set of labour codes that will seek to recast age-old labour norms.

According to a government report that was made public recently, India's employment generation ability lost traction with a 6.1 percent unemployment rate in FY18.