New Delhi, March 29 (KNN) Two days ahead of releasing the first quarter monetary policy for 2014-15, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan expressed concern over the level of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the Indian banking sector and jobless growth and the social tension which it creates.
 
Rajan aired these views while addressing the gathering at the opening of the University of Chicago’s Delhi centre.
 
“Rising NPAs in PSU banks are a concern, especially in public sector, not in private banks,” he said.
 
He also raised the cost of jobless growth with Arun Maira, member Planning Commission.
 
Rajan has written about the need to provide jobs for the low-skilled labour by amending the Apprentice Act in the Economic Survey for FY13.
 
Maira said skill deficit is a big gap for the economy but the employers have to pitch in with investments to bridge some of that.
 
In a question to Randall Kroszner, professor of economics at the Booth School of Business in Chicago University, Rajan wanted to know if the migration of jobs to higher levels of skill is hollowing out the job market globally. And would redistribution of the economic pie help more if that happened?
 
According to a recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), there will be too few high-skill workers and a surplus of lower-skill workers; MGI estimates that advanced economies could be short of 16-18 million college-educated workers by 2020.
 
India's labour supply will reach 630 million by 2030 from about 470 million today, making it the single-largest source of incremental labour supply in the world. India's strength will be its capacity to add more college-educated workers to the market, second only to China in net additions of this category. (KNN/SD)