NewsStocksIndustry Leaders Launch 100 Million Jobs Initiative to Address India's Employment ChallengeIndustry Leaders Launch 100 Million Jobs Initiative to Address India's Employment Challenge
Industry leaders launched the Hundred Million Jobs initiative to create 100 million jobs over the next decade, addressing India's employment gap despite rapid economic growth. Led by Harish Mehta (Nasscom), A J Patel (TiE), and K Yatish Rajawat (CIPP), the program focuses on entrepreneurship, reskilling, and enterprise development to generate the required 8-9 million annual jobs. The initiative operates as a collaborative platform with backing from prominent figures including N R Narayana Murthy and former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar.
*this image is generated using AI for illustrative purposes only.
Senior industry leaders have launched the Hundred Million Jobs initiative, an ambitious national program targeting the creation of 100 million jobs in India over the next decade. The announcement addresses India's persistent employment challenges despite being among the world's fastest-growing major economies.
Initiative Leadership and Vision
The program was announced by three prominent industry figures working together to tackle India's employment crisis:
| Role | Leader | Organization |
|---|---|---|
| Co-founder | Harish Mehta | Nasscom |
| Founder | A J Patel | The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) |
| Founder | K Yatish Rajawat | Centre for Innovation in Public Policy (CIPP) |
The initiative positions entrepreneurship, reskilling, and job-intensive enterprise development as central pillars of India's employment strategy, aiming to make job creation a core metric of economic development.
Employment Challenge Context
India faces significant employment generation pressures with specific demographic and economic factors driving the need for this initiative:
- Annual population growth: 12 million people entering working-age category yearly
- Required job creation: 8-9 million jobs annually to absorb new entrants
- Current gap: Employment growth lagging behind economic output expansion
- Sectoral challenges: Traditional job engines like manufacturing struggling to scale
Automation and artificial intelligence are reshaping business models across sectors, reducing entry-level roles and raising concerns about economic growth becoming disconnected from job creation.
Strategic Framework and Approach
The mission operates through a systems-led approach designed to strengthen job creators including entrepreneurs, MSMEs, and employers. Mehta emphasized the initiative's comprehensive scope: "Hundred Million Jobs is a systems-led effort to strengthen job creators by aligning skills, enterprise, data and policy to deliver resilient, dignified livelihoods for the next generation."
Patel highlighted the critical role of startups and small enterprises, which account for approximately 30% of India's GDP and represent the country's largest employment sector. The focus extends beyond major cities to enable distributed job creation across regions.
Rajawat described the employment challenge as requiring both business and government mindset shifts, with the mission built around a seven-pillar framework designed to enable job creation across regions and sectors.
Industry Support and Collaboration
The initiative operates as a collaborative platform with significant industry backing. Notable signatories to the charter include:
- N R Narayana Murthy (Infosys founder)
- Rajiv Kumar (former NITI Aayog vice-chairman)
- Rajat Gupta (former McKinsey senior partner)
- Srikanth Velamkanni (Fractal co-founder)
- Nishith Desai (legal expert)
- Rahul Jain (BCG India head)
- Adil Zainulbhai (Network18 chairman)
Implementation Structure
Hundred Million Jobs functions as a non-profit initiative developed in partnership with CIPP. The program will collaborate with government, industry, and civil society to promote entrepreneurship, strengthen local economies, and enable large-scale reskilling initiatives. The focus on distributed and resilient livelihoods aims to address regional employment disparities while building sustainable economic growth patterns.
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