Job creation is one of India’s biggest development challenges.

Unemployment is
projected to increase from 17.7 million last year to 17.8 million in 2017 and 18
million next year. The challenge is increasing with one million young Indians
entering the labor market every month: The average age of an Indian in next two
decades will be an average of 29 years as compared to the age of 37 years for China
and 48 years for Japan. Job growth is not keeping up with this pace: According to
Labor Bureau data, only 0.13 million jobs have been created in the last year, while
13 million people are added to the workforce every year. So where are the jobs?
World Bank estimates that automation could replace up to 69% of jobs as we know
them today in India. As per a recent survey, over 25% of employers in India expect
to reduce the headcount as a result of digitization. At the same time, India 2050
will have 1.6 billion people connected to a global 9.7 bn market, opening up new
opportunities for income generation and the way people engage with ‘work’. So
against these trends, how does the future of work look like in India 2050?

WHAT WE DO: Complementing forces – The worker of the future leverages technology

The future will look positive for high skilled labour – but what does it look like
for unskilled and semi-skillled labour? In India in 2050, many of the routine jobs
will most likely be replaced by technology and cheap labor will cease to be a
competitive advantage in India. Agriculture will be one of the sectors most
affected by the shift, as 55% of Indians are employed in agriculture. They
contribute only 16% net to the GDP, as most farmers are engaged in subsistence
farming. Technology advances may change the scenario: In the short term, the farmer
of the future will leverage technology to gather knowledge, increase his skills and
produce closer to the market requirement, at higher prices and without losses along
the value chain. In the long run, the ‘farm of the future’ will be driven by
talent that leverages sensors, IoT, robotics and artificial intelligence to
increase productivity and reduce cost, hence increasing competitiveness of the
sector and potentially leading to another ‘green revolution’.