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The information technology (IT) sector created 8.73 lakh new jobs in the last five years, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has claimed, rebuffing the Opposition’s allegations of lack of employment opportunities under the Modi government.
“The Congress is indulging in falsehoods... They have nothing to offer from their side. I am not using my own data, there are industry figures based on the latest Nasscom report. I speak on the basis of our performance, not rhetoric, on facts not falsehoods,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, IT Minister said.
Prasad said the IT industry revenue grew from $106 billion in 2013-14 to $180 billion in 2018-19. He said the IT sector witnessed growth with initiatives such as Common Service Centres (CSCs), rural BPO promotions, start-ups and innovation.
Employment in IT sector
Under the Modi-led government, the current employment in the IT sector tallies to 41.40 lakh jobs directly and 1.2 crore jobs indirectly, as per the Nasscom report, Prasad said. “I am not using my data, I am giving Nasscom data,” he said, adding that “one can talk on facts but not on falsehoods, and if the Congress is so keen, can they show their record of employment generated in 10 years of UPA regime when the economy was down and India was a big centre of impropriety and corruption”
He said the spurt in economic activities and infrastructure projects over the past five years created a number of jobs. In the new initiatives such as CSCs there have been job opportunities created for 12 lakh people and 40,000 direct and around 3 lakh indirect jobs were created through start-ups and other innovation schemes. For the rural BPOs, there are 23,000 new jobs created so far. Electronics manufacturing has added an additional 6.7 lakh jobs.
“If the economy is growing at 7.4 per cent plus, if national highways are being constructed, if manufacturing is picking up, and if India’s economy is globally being recognised, it is creating more jobs,” Prasad said.
About new jobs in the government departments, Prasad said that will have a ‘certain limitations’ because of various factors.
About monitoring of social media platforms during elections, he said the Election Commission is already monitoring it and will lay the ground rule for working of social media during elections.
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