By Sarita Chaganti Singh and Nikunj Ohri
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The first budget of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after this year’s general elections will focus on employment and the middle class, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.
The government will allocate 2 trillion rupees ($24 billion) to create jobs over the next five years, Sitharaman said, in a plan that provides employment-linked incentives to companies, including those in manufacturing.
Programmes to improve skills and provide subsidised loans for higher education will also be launched, Sitharaman added.
India’s official unemployment rate in urban areas is close to 6%, but private agency the Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy pegs it higher, at close to 9%.
Government data this month showed 20 million new job opportunities generated in India each year since fiscal 2017-18, but private economists said self-employment and temporary farm hiring accounted for much of the figure, rather than formal positions with regular wages.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost its absolute majority in the election last month, making it dependent on allies to form a government for the first time since he came to power more than a decade ago.
Sitharaman said the government would hasten loans from multilateral agencies for the eastern state of Bihar and the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, both governed by key allies.
($1=83.6230 Indian rupees)
(Additional reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Editing by YP Rajesh)
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