India's Reform Journey Revisited - Saon Ray, ICRIER

What is one reform that was overlooked in 1991?

One of the pressing problems that we have is basically the jobs issue, but I will add a little bit more nuance in that. It is not only creating the jobs, it is also the skill that is required in each job category. I will give an example of this new sector, electric vehicles. We know that there are certain parts that are specific to the electric vehicle which are not there in the traditional ICE vehicles.

Those are the new jobs and the skill sets that we require and will need to be created. What we need to basically understand is that you need to map the skills that are required, and do the skill training according to the requirement of the sector. To answer your question, it's basically we need skill mapping with the specific sector and job creation in all possible sectors along with the skill mapping.

What is one reform that India needs today?

The most important reform would be this. Basically, there is a skill mapping that has already been done, but it has to be done sector-wise. One way to do it is also that there are these new PLI schemes that have been announced, which are going to create jobs, but we need to understand that in each of those 14 sectors, what are the jobs that will be created and if there is a skill requirement in each of those sectors. That is the reform that we need.