Over the last two decades, a fascinating growth story has unfolded in India. Yet, the improvement in material conditions for the country’s vast majority has not kept pace with that growth. This is mainly because India is still grappling with poor employment conditions and widespread unemployment.  However, there is not much clarity on the exact nature of this problem and the steps required to tackle it. This short introduction addresses this lack of information.

Reviewing the evolution of employment conditions in India since Independence, this volume underscores the linkages between it and economic growth and development. It not only clearly outlines the contours of the employment challenge that India is now confronted with but also discusses viable ways of overcoming this hurdle.

About the Author

Ajit K. Ghose received his PhD in economics from the University of Cambridge, UK. He was a research fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, UK, before joining the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Geneva, Switzerland, as a research economist in 1979. He retired from the post of a senior economist at the ILO in 2008. During 2009–10, he was Visiting Senior Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and at the Centre for Development Studies, University of Cambridge. During 2015–2017, he was a National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. Currently, he is Visiting Professor, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. He has authored several books and many articles in professional journals, in areas such as agrarian transformation, globalization, inequality, economic growth and development, employment and labour markets, and poverty and famines. His latest major publication is India Employment Report 2016: Challenges and the Imperative of Manufacturing-Led Growth (Oxford University Press, 2016).