India’s job challenge gets a new blueprint: 100 million jobs mission

New Delhi: A group of senior industry leaders on Monday announced the launch of the Hundred Million Jobs, a national initiative aimed at creating 100 million jobs in India over the next decade, as the country grapples with inadequate employment despite rapid economic growth.

The initiative was announced by Harish Mehta, co-founder of software industry body Nasscom, A J Patel, founder of global entrepreneur network The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), and K Yatish Rajawat, founder of the Centre for Innovation in Public Policy (CIPP), a statement issued by organisers said. India’s working-age population is expanding by around 12 million people each year, while traditional job engines such as manufacturing have struggled to scale. The country needs to generate 8-9 million jobs annually to absorb new entrants and capitalise on its demographic dividend, the founders said.

Despite being among the world’s fastest-growing major economies, India has seen employment growth lag output expansion. Automation and artificial intelligence are reshaping business models and reducing entry-level roles across sectors, raising concerns that economic growth could become increasingly disconnected from job creation. The Hundred Million Jobs mission places entrepreneurship, reskilling and job-intensive enterprise development at the centre of India’s employment strategy. The initiative aims to make job creation a core metric of economic development, with a focus on distributed and resilient livelihoods across regions.

“Hundred Million Jobs is a systems-led effort to strengthen job creators - entrepreneurs, MSMEs and employers - by aligning skills, enterprise, data and policy to deliver resilient, dignified livelihoods for the next generation,” Mehta said in a statement. Patel said startups and small enterprises, which account for about 30 per cent of India’s GDP and are its largest employers, must be scaled beyond major cities. “If India is to generate 8-9 million jobs a year, some structural barriers need to be addressed so entrepreneurship becomes an aspiration for many and a practical engine of mass employment.” Rajawat described India’s employment challenge as a “systems challenge”, calling for a shift in both business and government mindsets. He said the mission is built around a seven-pillar framework designed to enable job creation across regions and sectors.