Mathur Ritika Passi

THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT MUST
ACKNOWLEDGE THE CERTAIN
CHARACTERISTICS THAT ARE
UNIQUE TO THE COUNTRY’S
ECONOMY, SUCH AS THE FEDERAL
NATURE OF DECISION- maKING AND
THE RANGE OF socio -ECONOMIC
GROUPS TO CATER TO.
primary, secondary and tertiary schools
has significantly increased in the last
four decades, for both boys and girls.
Improvements have also been witnessed
across education indicators such as literacy
rates, completion rates, pupil-teacher
ratio, etc. Little effort, however, has been
made to focus on the quality of education,
something that is also missing mention in
Goal 8 of the SDGs. The fact that 48.1% of
the children enrolled in grade V could not
read grade II content only corroborates this
point. 21 The dated and dogmatic nature of
education at all levels has made the system
inflexible. At higher levels, the obsession of
obtaining high marks through rote learning
has rendered Indian students unemployable,
i.e., higher education in India provides low
rates of return in terms of future income.
This is not to say that India does not need
more educational institutions at all levels
along with increasing its enrolment and
completion numbers further—there is still
a considerable gap between supply and
demand for schools, and the proportion
of dropouts is still high. However, the
government must not focus on only getting
children to and into schools, but must
incorporate within its programmes what
students gain out of enrolment so as to
make them more productive and therefore
of value, i.e., employable.
A welcome move on part of the SDG
agenda is the incorporation of the
Information, Communications and
Technology (ICT) sector in various goals.
Specifically to SDG 8, targets 8.2 and
8.3 look to improve productivity in the
economy through ensuring wider access to
this tool.
In 2001, there were approximately seven
million internet users in India. By 2013,
this number had grown by 25 times, at a
compounded rate of over 30% year-onyear.
Further, by 2013, about 40 million
users were online every day, spending
around 40-45 hours on the internet
per month. 22 The economic impact of
this “explosion” has the potential to
revolutionise the way Indians work and
live. The internet is already economically
very powerful. In 2013 alone, it contributed
to $60 million or 2.7% of India’s GDP.
Indeed, the digital economy is already
bigger than critical sectors such as
healthcare (which contributed 2.7%) and
military (at 2.5%). 23 As per projections,
this contribution is set to reach 4% of
the Indian GDP, comparable to levels in
developed economies such as Japan and
the United States. 24 Regarding employment
generation, the internet sector employs
approximately 400,000 to 500,000 people.
As the e-commerce sector grows, it is
expected to create 1.5 to two million jobs
by 2018. 25 The major contributors to this
surge will be the growing e-commerce
sector. As more and more Indians log in to
websites and mobile-based applications to
procure both goods and services, the sector
is expected to drive job creation in the
country.
The Indian government, realising the
importance of the ICT sector, has launched
the Digital India initiative. The nine pillars
of this initiative (namely Broadband
Highways, Universal Access to Mobile
Connectivity, Public Internet Access
Programme, e-Governance: Reforming
Government through Technology,
e-Kranti—Electronic Delivery of
Services, Information for All, Electronics
Manufacturing, IT for Jobs, and Early
Harvest Programmes) are expected to build
capacities and provide new avenues for
employment.
Promoting Financial Inclusion
Data from the financial inclusion index
of the World Bank highlights India’s
growing improvements in the sector. In
just three years (2011-2014), percentage of
accounts at financial institutions increased
17 points from 35% to 52.75%. 26 The
National Mission on Financial Inclusion
(Jan Dhan Yojana), launched in 2014,
is the largest such initiative. It has the
objective of providing a bank account
to every household in the country and
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