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{"text":[[{"start":8.24,"text":"India prides itself on being the fastest-growing major economy, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of it becoming a developed nation by 2047."}],[{"start":18.52,"text":"But that promise is not being felt by hundreds of thousands of young Indians, who took to the streets last month in frustration over the lack of opportunities in the world’s most populous country."}],[{"start":29.2,"text":"The Gen Z demonstrations, sparked by anger over an exam leak scandal, escalated in a matter of weeks into a broader expression of discontent by youths who feel they have been overlooked by the country’s political leadership."}],[{"start":41.92,"text":"They have also forced a rare retreat by Modi, who changed his education minister and set up a special commission to reform the brutally competitive entry exams for higher education."}],[{"start":52.76,"text":"But economists said the wave of youth malaise reflected deeper problems with India’s growth model, which will prove much harder to tackle."}],[{"start":60.36,"text":"“India’s rapid growth does not produce adequate jobs,” said Mahesh Vyas, chief executive of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a database and forecasting company. “India has failed to capitalise on the demographic dividend available to it. It has failed to ensure good-quality jobs for young graduates.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":81.72,"text":"The problem is acute. India has the world’s biggest youth population, with an estimated 370mn people aged 15 to 29. More of them are studying than before, but many have found that hard-won, often expensive degrees offer no guarantee of a decent job."}],[{"start":99.84,"text":"Ranjit Kumar Das had hoped the science degree he earned a decade ago would transform his life. But the 32-year-old son of a construction worker from Bihar, India’s poorest state, has been trapped in low-paid work."}],[{"start":113,"text":"“My two elder brothers, both uneducated — a mason and a driver — earn more than me,” he said. “My last salary, at a dentist’s clinic where I worked for eight years as a computer operator, was Rs16,000 [$170] a month. There are too few jobs for our enormous population.”"}],[{"start":129.68,"text":"CMIE data shows that while India’s overall unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent in the last fiscal year, the unemployment rate for graduates was 14.5 per cent, while for those aged 20-24, it was 36 per cent."}],[{"start":144.24,"text":"Stories abound of people with MBAs driving taxis to make a living, a fate that contrasts sharply with Modi’s vision of a prosperous nation."}],[{"start":152.84,"text":"After initially ignoring the protests, which were led by a satirical online campaign that termed itself the Cockroach Janta Party, and then cracking down, the government has abruptly changed tack."}],[{"start":164.18,"text":"The Indian professional’s must-read on business and policy in the world’s fastest-growing big economy. Sign up for the newsletter here"}],[{"start":171.04,"text":"Modi, who did not address students’ concerns for weeks, has been recording selfie videos, calling for empathy for young people and ordering cabinet ministers to use Instagram."}],[{"start":180.8,"text":"“These are misled children. Showing them the right path is our duty,” the prime minister said in one video."}],[{"start":187.64,"text":"Officials in Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promise policy changes are on the way. “Employment-linked incentives are now being worked upon,” one senior BJP official told the FT."}],[{"start":199.36,"text":"But critics say that while many other countries struggle to create enough well-paying jobs for young people, the situation in India has been made worse by government blunders."}],[{"start":208.24,"text":"Santosh Mehrotra, an economist and author of India Out of Work, pointed out that the number of students in India has been rising sharply even as annual economic growth has declined from about 8 per cent in the early 2000s to about 6 to 7 per cent under Modi."}],[{"start":223.72,"text":"“The structural crisis in the economy is essentially caused by the policy-induced mistakes of this government,” he said."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":230.08,"text":"Mehrotra cited a 2016 decision by the prime minister to remove higher-denomination paper currency from circulation overnight, a move that devastated the vast informal economy."}],[{"start":240.92,"text":"Then there was the rushed introduction of a complex new computerised sales tax, which hurt small and medium-sized businesses, and the coronavirus pandemic, during which the government imposed a nationwide lockdown at short notice, forcing urban workers to return to the countryside."}],[{"start":256.12,"text":"Praveen Chakravarty, a senior member of India’s main opposition Congress party, said the fundamental problem was simpler."}],[{"start":262.28,"text":"“It comes down to one data point, which is private investment,” said Chakravarty, who represents the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India’s upper house of parliament. “Private investment as a share of GDP has been falling and has been at its lowest under the Modi era.”"}],[{"start":262.78,"text":"The reason, he added, was “extreme cronyism”."}],[{"start":283.18,"text":"“If I am not one of the two favoured business groups of the government, I am worried,” Chakravarty said. “What will happen if I go to invest, put down a few billion dollars for a 10-year investment, and suddenly I don’t get permissions, I’m intimidated, I’m told to sell that to the favoured business person?”"}],[{"start":300.52,"text":"India’s finance ministry did not respond to a request for comment."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":304.44,"text":"Modi’s government has tried to boost skilled manufacturing, wooing Apple to make iPhones in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and spearheading an initiative with the private sector to design and produce semiconductors domestically."}],[{"start":316.92,"text":"While employment in registered factories has grown, labour force survey data shows that the proportion of Indians working in manufacturing — including the large informal sector — has stagnated, with many moving from agriculture to construction and service roles."}],[{"start":331.32,"text":"“Apart from Apple, there have been very few successes because India’s share of global labour-intensive manufacturing is declining,” said Arvind Subramanian, a senior fellow at Brown University and a former chief economic adviser to the Indian government."}],[{"start":346.16,"text":"Higher US tariffs have undermined India’s attraction as a manufacturing alternative to China, another Modi priority. India’s leading IT companies are also retrenching as they brace for the impact of AI and automation."}],[{"start":359.28,"text":"“All this triumphalism about seven or eight per cent growth is just not borne out by the reality on the ground,” Subramanian said."}],[{"start":366.84,"text":"While Modi’s government has undertaken economic reforms, negotiated free trade deals and loosened regulations, these have not been enough to reassure investors."}],[{"start":376.32,"text":"“Why is that the case? The answer is all the shenanigans on the political side, the arbitrariness, the coercive use of state power, tilting the playing field in favour of some against the others,” Subramanian said. “There’s no confidence in the rule of law anymore.”"}],[{"start":391.88,"text":"Additional reporting by Jyotsna Singh. Data visualisation by Haohsiang Ko in Hong Kong"}],[{"start":403.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1786136207_6131.mp3"}