Unemployment | Business Upturn

Rahul Gandhi targets Election Commission, claims voters’ names are being deleted and added

Rashmi Pandey — Fri, 08 May 2026 13:14:17 +0000

Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched a sharp attack on the BJP-led central government during the Sadbhav Yatra in Gurugram, accusing the ruling party of creating a system of “election manipulation” in multiple states and alleging that democratic institutions were being controlled for political gain.

Addressing supporters and local residents during the march in Haryana, Gandhi claimed that elections in states including Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Assam were being influenced through manipulation of voter lists and institutional control.

“You know Haryana well. In Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, and now Bengal and Assam, they have created a system of election manipulation. They delete lakhs of names and add lakhs of new names,” Gandhi said during his speech.

The Congress MP further alleged that the Election Commission and sections of the bureaucracy were functioning under the influence of the ruling establishment. He claimed that the BJP believed its political dominance could not be challenged but warned that “their time is coming.”

Gandhi also accused the government of favouring large industrial groups while ordinary citizens continued to struggle with unemployment and economic pressure. Referring to infrastructure projects and strategic assets, he alleged that airports, ports, power plants and other public assets were being handed over to select corporate entities.

“The public now understands that elections are being manipulated and that wealth is being taken away from ordinary people and given to big industrialists,” he said.

A major part of Gandhi’s address focused on unemployment, particularly among young people. He said joblessness had emerged as one of the biggest concerns not only in Haryana but across the country.

“When I asked about Haryana’s biggest issues, people said unemployment is the biggest problem. Young people are not getting jobs. Degrees are being given in private universities and colleges, but there are no jobs afterward,” Gandhi stated.

He further claimed that several small and medium industries had shut down, worsening employment opportunities for youth. Gandhi also alleged that young people were increasingly being distracted by social media platforms instead of receiving meaningful economic opportunities.

“Young people are being distracted and addicted to social media platforms like Instagram,” he added.

The remarks come amid heightened political activity ahead of upcoming electoral contests in several states. The BJP has repeatedly rejected opposition allegations of electoral manipulation and has defended the functioning of constitutional institutions, including the Election Commission.

The Sadbhav Yatra is part of Congress’ broader outreach campaign aimed at mobilising support around issues such as unemployment, inflation and governance. Gandhi’s latest comments are expected to intensify political confrontation between the Congress and the BJP in the coming days.

‘Unemployment and inflation’: Rahul Gandhi counts reasons for Lok Sabha security breach

Uddeshya Thakur — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 07:53:05 +0000

The reaction of Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi has come to light regarding the breach in the security of Parliament. He has raised questions on the policies of the Modi government at the Centre.

“The biggest reason behind the lapse in Parliament security is unemployment and inflation. Due to the policies of PM Modi, youth are not getting employment,” said Rahul Gandhi.

संसद सुरक्षा में हुई चूक के पीछे सबसे बड़ा कारण बेरोजगारी और महंगाई है।

PM मोदी की नीतियों के कारण युवाओं को रोजगार नहीं मिल रहा है।

: @RahulGandhi जी pic.twitter.com/KQZbcY1Uvo

— Congress (@INCIndia) December 16, 2023

Meanwhile, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Home Minister does not want to give a statement in the House. He is giving statements on this matter in the media, but does not speak in the House for the smooth running of the House. Also said that he seeks votes by taking the name of Congress, seeks votes by targeting Nehruji and Gandhiji, and seeks votes by targeting Nehruji and Gandhiji.

Earlier, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh accused the BJP government of trying to divert attention from real issues and wondered why the Home Minister was not ready to make a statement in the House. He also said that the BJP MP from Mysuru had a role in this, who had provided visitor passes to the infiltrators. Jairam Ramesh had raised the question as to what is his role in this matter. Also said that this is contempt of Parliament. This is contempt of parliamentary traditions. When Parliament is in session, ministers never make such big statements outside Parliament on serious issues. They take the Parliament into confidence.

Unemployment rate in India reached a 16-month high of 8.30% in December: CMIE

Aryan Jakhar — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 08:17:52 +0000

According to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s jobless rate rose to a 16-month high of 8.30% in December from 8.00% the previous month.

According to the CMIE data, the unemployment rate in urban areas increased to 10.09 percent in December from 8.96 percent the previous month while it decreased in rural areas to 7.44 percent from 7.55 percent.

Mahesh Vyas, managing director of the CMIE, told the news agency Reuters that the increase in the jobless rate was “not as awful as it may seem” because it came on top of a good growth in the labour force participation rate, which soared to 40.48 percent in December, the highest level in a year.

“Most importantly, the employment rate has increased in December to 37.1 percent, which again is the highest since January 2022,” he said.

Before the next round of national elections in 2024, controlling high inflation and providing jobs for millions of young people entering the labour force continue to be the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s primary challenges.

From the southern city of Kanyakumari to Srinagar, in the Jammu and Kashmir region, the main opposition Congress party began a five-month cross-country march in September to mobilise public opinion on issues like high prices, unemployment, and what it claims are the divisive politics of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party.

According to separate quarterly figures prepared by the state-run National Statistical Office (NSO) and released in November, the jobless rate decreased to 7.2 percent in the July-September quarter from 7.6 percent in the prior quarter.

According to CMIE data, the jobless rate in the northern state of Haryana increased to 37.4 percent in December, while it was 28.5 percent in Rajasthan and 20.8 percent in Delhi.

NSO records unemployment rate at 12.6% in April-June 2021

Vineet Jain — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 13:47:46 +0000

According to official statistics issued on Monday, the urban unemployment rate fell to 12.2 percent in April-June 2021, down from 20.8 percent in the same period a year earlier.

The unemployment rate for women was 14.3 percent during the reporting period, down from 21.1 percent during the same time a year before. Similarly, 12.6 percent of men were unemployed.

Joblessness was high in April-June of 2020, owing mostly to the impact of the country’s lockdown restrictions established to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

During the April-June 2021 period, the labour force participation rate (LFPR) was 46.8 percent, up from 45.9 percent in the previous year’s comparable period. The labour force participation rate (LFPR) is defined as the proportion of the population who works.

In April of this year, NSO released PLFS. Based on the PLFS, a quarterly bulletin is issued with estimates of labour force indicators such as UR, Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), worker distribution by broad status in employment, and industry of work in Current Weekly Status (CWS).

The estimates of jobless people in CWS provide an average picture of unemployment during seven days of the survey period.

According to the CWS method, a person is deemed jobless if he or she did not work for at least one hour on any day of the week but sought or was available for employment for at least one hour on any day of the period. According to CWS, the labour force is the number of people who were either employed or unemployed on a weekly basis in the week preceding the survey date.

Ira Khan talks about her childhood ambitions in a new video, says it included solving corruption, unemployment, and feeding dogs

Satya Shruti — Fri, 21 May 2021 07:25:01 +0000

Days after Aamir Khan’s daughter Ira Khan celebrated her 23rd birthday, she took to Instagram and shared a video talking about her aspirations as a child where she aspired to solve the issue of corruption and end unemployment among other important crises prevalent in the society. She spoke about how she dreamt of traveling villages and checking at the employment rate and then starting her own company to hire people. While she had many dreams of helping the people, she was told to focus on her studies which would further help in accomplishing her goals.

Ira said, “At different ages, I wanted to solve corruption. I was like ‘We will find all the people who are corrupt and we will tell their bosses that they are corrupt and then we will get rid of corruption’. I wanted to end unemployment so I wanted to go to all the villages and find out what villagers were good at doing and get them employment in companies that can actually, or make my own company so that I can actually pay them what they need.”

She added, “I wanted to, lots of people were on a diet and they were eating six egg whites a day, but not eating the egg yolks. I was like, ‘we should collect the egg yolks and feed it to the dogs so that the dogs don’t go hungry’.”

To fulfil her dreams, Ira had a plan. She was told to do her bit at the time by focusing on her studies. She said, “I was like, ‘okay, I’ll study, I’ll grow, earn lots of money and I will donate it to NGOs.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ira Khan (@khan.ira)

Service sector in India showing rapid growth: IHS Markit

Arnav Dogra — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 08:14:26 +0000

According to a private survey done by IHS Markit Ltd, a British-American firm that deals in information, analytics and solutions, the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of the service sector in India had witnessed a healthy increase to 55.3 in February which was higher by 2.5 compared to January 2021.

However, the survey also noted that the employment rates had dropped in the service sector for the third month in a row. “Despite the ongoing growth of the total new business, service sector employment fell further during February. A number of companies suggested that the Covid-19 pandemic restricted labour supply. The pace of job shedding accelerated from January but was moderate overall,” the word said, attributing this decline to the pandemic.

An Economic Associate-Director at IHS Markit, Pollyanna De Lima said that the major blow that the Indian economy had suffered in the first two quarters of the 2020-2021 fiscal year had started turning around as was witnessed in the FY2020-21 Q3 results; the economy is anticipated to recover in this final quarter.

The economy at the end of December 2020, showed the first signs of recovery after rising 0.4% for the first time in months, which is not a lot but is a positive indicator in terms of a gradual improvement in the economic condition.

Budget 2021: Government expected to revive segments impacted by COVID-19 pandemic

Devanshu Singla — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 06:15:25 +0000

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has raised the expectations high by promising to deliver a ‘budget like never before’. Globally, governments are facing massive policy and operational challenges and are adopting unconventional measures to revive their economy.

Current Budget is expected to outline government strategy to revive the various segments of the economy from the severe slump caused by the pandemic. The government has a difficult task of managing the fiscal burden and alow recovery of the economy, which is expected to remain high not only for the current year but also for the subsequent years. Some things expected by the government are:

Set a realistic expenditure, borrowing plan

The government could start with setting up a realistic revenue receipt and deficit target, exclude off-budget borrowing and lay down a revised road map for fiscal consolidation. The monetisation of the deficit, borrowings from the overseas market by the central government leaving room for the state governments and private sector to borrow from the domestic market, disinvestment and asset monetization could be the probable avenues for raising funds this fiscal year.

Prioritise expenditure allocation

The government should prioritise its expenditure in three core areas — infrastructure, MSMEs and healthcare. Also, we expect the government to take measures to reduce the cost of doing business, enhance export competitiveness and place considerable thrust on education and skill development.

Create job opportunities

COVID-19 will lead to an uneven economic recovery across different sectors which will result in income inequality with low-skilled people being impacted more than high-skilled and high-paid employees, which is something the government needs to be mindful of. Thousands of workers are asked to work reduced hours or no hours at all. With fewer paid hours of work, median incomes are falling.

Addressing the needs of the upcoming sectors like renewable energy and healthcare and providing more incentives to employers to retain their employees at least for the next two years might help to reduce underemployment and create job opportunities. With COVID-19 accelerating the pace of digitisation and adoption of the fourth industrial revolution, a re-look at the skilling initiatives with respect to Industry 4.0 and making digitisation a mandatory skill development amongst MSMEs would be worthwhile.

What industries and markets can expect from ‘like never before’ Budget?

Devanshu Singla — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 08:29:08 +0000

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will announce the Budget FY2021-22 on February 1, 2021. The FM has already raised expectations by promising a budget “like never before”. If it truly turns out to be “like never before”, we will have the opportunity to rejoice like never before.

With the world’s largest immunisation programme currently underway in the country, this is the right time further accelerate efforts to revive the economy. According to a survey by Ficci and Dhruva Advisors, India Inc expects the government to continue with its policy focus on strengthening the manufacturing ecosystem, promoting research and development, and incentivising futuristic technologies in the upcoming budget.

This year we can witness the extensive budget shortfall ever, even when the growth trajectory has turned positive and the economy is looking lost in the revenue is due to the expenditure cuts. In terms of budget estimates, this year’s expenditure would be the decade’s lowest.

Demand has improved in a few sectors of the economy, but there is a need to watch this trend to see if the improvement continues in a sustained manner.

Enhancing Sec 80c limit to Rs 2.5 lakh will help boost savings, as also augur well for the housing sector. Similarly, a higher Sec 80D limit will strengthen medical coverage in our country.

Production-linked incentives (PLI) are an excellent scheme to boost manufacturing. We can expect more incentives to boost manufacturing, exports and FDI, as also tailored PLI schemes in new sectors like laptops, desktops, IoT devices, and white goods like LED products and ACs.

Any further cuts in income tax rates or corporate tax rates are unlikely but a major disinvestment drive in FY22 is expected.

Steps like a stimulus for high employment-generating sectors like auto, textiles, and real estate, 1 per cent GST cap for under‐construction projects, additional deductions for home buyers etc. will send positive vibes in the markets.

LTCG tax exemption and reduction in Securities Transaction Tax (STT) and Commodity Transaction Tax (CTT) is on the top of Capital market’s wishlist. Markets fear the enhance of LTCG and introduction of wealth tax in some form.

The government’s top priority for 2021 should be on pulling the nation through the final phase of the pandemic and enable quicker economic recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels of growth.

The budget must prioritise growth-oriented measures over fiscal considerations. It must focus on employment generation and on putting more money in the hands of consumers that will boost demand and drive growth.

Improving the ease of doing business, including ease of administration of the tax regime, are key asks of the industry to promote India as a global manufacturing hub. The budget proposals will not only impact the near future but could also potentially shape India’s long-term growth trajectory.

Indian Service Sector: Job cuts and anxious future to prevail

Sanah Shah — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 06:02:13 +0000

In India, the service sector which is a major contributor to economic growth and jobs has been weighed down due to the pandemic. There was a loss of momentum in December 2020 as cases began to rise and new businesses and employees were affected, according to a private survey, reported by Reuters.

India is Asia’s third-largest economy and has been steadily recovering from the recession produced by the coronavirus. There is no expectation to return to pre-pandemic levels while the economy fights to merely stay afloat, specifically within the service industry.

The Nikkei/IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 52.3 in December from November’s 53.7. Although, it held above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction for a third continuous month.

Pollyanna De Lima, economics associate director at IHS Markit, said, “A spike in COVID-19 cases was reported as a key factor restricting the growth of new work intakes among service providers, which in turn curbed the rise in output and led to increased business uncertainty about the outlook.”

She continued to say, “It is clear that the early part of 2021 will continue to be challenging and we’re looking at a sustainable recovery and some return to normality once COVID-19 vaccines become available.”

India has gained the second-highest number of coronavirus infections in the world. Two vaccines – Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield – received emergency approval but with the sheer high level of the population being 1.3 billion and rudimentary healthcare system, it would take years to vaccinate all citizens.

A very rough 2020 was left ingrown territory due to a sub-index monitoring overall demand; this declined to a three-month low as night curfews were imposed in some major countries leading to depressed demand.

Foreign demand or demand from other countries remains strictly in contraction territory as many countries have re-enforced full-fledged lockdown procedures.

This weak demand forced firms to lower their prices even though there is an uptick in input costs, which increased at the quickest speed since February. At the same time, job market conditions have darkened with recent graduates losing their positions and firms shutting down due to intense costs. This has slipped back into contraction, although the pace of job shredding has remained minimal.

Lastly, Lima added, “Given the damaging impact of the pandemic on the service economy, some companies are facing financial difficulties, which is preventing staff hiring. December saw the ninth round of job shedding in ten months.”

While attempting to remain optimistic about the next 12 months of 2021, this faded at the end of 2020 as firms were anxious about the uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, rupee’s depreciation and rising inflationary pressure, according to a recent survey.

There has been a pick-up in factory activity but sluggish demand for services meant the India composite PMI fell to a three-month low of 54.9.

India’s unemployment rate rises to 6.98% in October – CMIE

Akanksha Yadav — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 06:00:14 +0000

According to the data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate in India has risen to 6.98% in October 2020. The current urban unemployment rate stands at 7.13% whereas the rural unemployment rate stands at 6.90%. October’s unemployment rate has observed a rise as compared to September 2020 when the rate had declined to 6.67%, the lowest unemployment rate India had witnessed in the past 18 months.

However, the CIME observed that there was an odd case of the labour participation rate (LPR) declining in September, which was a sign of worry for the economy. The latest labour participation rate observed in September at 40.7% was 199 basis points lower than the average labour participation rate of 42.7% in 2019-20.

“This is odd because if the employment rate goes up and the unemployment rate goes down, it creates room for an expansion of the labour force and therefore also the labour participation rate,” CMIE CEO Mahesh Vyas has observed.

The LPR determines that what percentage of the population eligible to work are willing to be employed.

“If this proportion keeps falling as it evidently is, it does not bode well for India’s growth story. It renders all stories of a revival in the economy as a myth” Vyas observed.