Where are the Jobs?
It sounds so stupid that our government wants to boast about getting a Facebook or Google to come to India to create jobs. I have nothing against FB or G – I use both of these and am happy that they have offices in India, but they do not create ENOUGH jobs, especially at the bottom of the pyramid.
Take 2 industries which create a lot of jobs. Or could create a lot of jobs. Broadly it is the hospitality industry.
Every city that I travel to (Coimbatore and Chennai) I found that the hotels were holding back their expansion because of shortage of labor. You got to be kidding, right?
Well no. The hotels are unable to get enough labor – willing to be trained and work hard for say 10 hours a day. They are willing to work with Swiggy, Ola, Uber – remember these are the service models. More importantly these apps are not creating jobs, they are what I call “entrepreneur aggregators”. Excellent concept, but if the hotels do not survive or grow, what will a Swiggy or a Zomato deliver?
Am I saying that these hotels will close down? No. I am not sure, but the existing hotels are not too keen to grow. I checked with one small eatery in Mumbai. If I am not wrong, they require MORE THAN 140 forms / applications to start and run a hotel.
Of course it gets worse when you change the word from hotel to hospital. Ask any doctor running a small hospital. Dealing with the baboo(n)s is not easy. I am sure that most of this is just pure dadagiri to make money.
Now come to a different profession or business. This also is a part of the hospitality industry. The senior citizen home, and the geriatric care centers. There is no law in this business. So when I was speaking to one of the ‘entrepreneurs’ he was telling me the risks in that business! Imagine a son lands in Chennai..sells off his parents home for Rs. 1 crore, takes control of the money and leaves them in a senior citizen home. He pays the initial deposit of Rs. 10L and the installment for the first quarter. Then he goes off to the USA and does not return at all.
What should the senior citizen home do? They have no recourse – and they cannot dump the old people. Oops there is no law.
What happens if one disgruntled retired baboo(n) staying in a senior citizen home gets the local police to trouble the owner because one day the food was cold? Oops there are no guidelines…and obviously no law.
Namo – if he is worried about creating jobs should concentrate on creating jobs at the bottom of the pyramid. In Agartala, Belapur, Coimbatore, Dehradun – those are the places that matter. Creating jobs for a few toppers from IIT or IIM is completely unnecessary. Most of them are capable of fending for themselves.
The jobs that can be created in the Senior citizen care industry – to look after their banking, medical care, food, entertainment…is HUGE. Far more importantly the senior citizen complex owner was telling me that he is looking for people who have low IQ – the jobs are repetitive, boring, and difficult. He does not want people who are capable of finding jobs elsewhere and he is willing to give them accomodation, training, etc. – he is just unable to get good candidates.
Why does somebody not set up a training organisation to train people at the bottom of the pyramid? Simply because as long as the government does not come up with a clear model for Senior citizen homes it will not grow as an industry. It is being run like mom and pop shops. I cannot imagine a Taj or Mahindra holiday resorts wanting to set up a chain of senior citizen care homes across the country. Not even a Kamath.
Not till the government decides to make rules and regulations regarding the running of hotels, hospitals, and senior citizen homes – and reduce the number of permissions to 2 from the current 200. And in case of senior citizens make a law on how these homes should be run. Right now it is ‘tukka baji’.
After I posted this I saw this article…and it is so damn true ALL OVER THE COUNTRY not just Bengaluru
Karthik
Visited ur blog after many months.
U nailed it clearly. What is stopping for the reforms? are we missing something? are babus not willing to work as per Leaders charisma?
SS
The jobs should have been open in Govt itself. Govt is depending on pvt player.. If in 1947, population was 30 Cr and now it is 130 Cr, then correspondingly, shouldn’t the Govt facilities and govt servants – police, army, judges, registrar offices, etc.. increase? Correspondingly, the Govt income & revenues in terms of taxes, budgetary allocations, revenue from Govt companies etc should grow in the same proportion as does the population growth? But does it? Govt should establish its own companies (and manage as responsibly like pvt Cos.) to source its income. This will create jobs too..
So many cases pending in courts, police stations. Many patients left unattended in Govt hospitals. So much of red tapes. Consumer demand here is more. Supply is less. It is a mess. No way out..
Pradeep
State govts have bigger role to play in creating jobs in many of the cities and villages. If as state govt spends most of its energy in creating business friendly environment, jobs will come. In fact the states do the opposite like doling out freebies (TN), unleashing corruption and bribery (every state), complete disregard for infrastructure and creating political nuisance like in UP.
Centre can only create a perception to business leaders, states need to follow up and do what needs to be done.
Some states which do that gets the Googles and Facebooks, others continue to go down.
SS
It so happens that – Most of the equities of Co.s we analyze and buy, invariably – Co. HQ is in either GJ or MH. Almost 90% of the good ones we have. Not supporting any party here – But it is a fact.
Other State Govts have to learn from these states. Tremendous opportunities exist within India in all other states, if State Govts have political will & mindset. A businessman always thinks of risks. Rather than investing in WB or KL, you can throw that money in some well. We have some states which are still in Mesopotamian times.
Krish
One can blame bribes, babus and netas but these businessmen are no charity. These things have not surfaced in 2019 and not limited to B’lore. All over India same story and even worse in many states in North India. There are several reasons (nightmare to travel within Indian cities, sky rocketing prices, no parking, drunken driving etc) contributed to reduced footfalls to the pubs. Ignoring the true reasons, we immediately jump to blame on Babus, Bribes and Policies. Honestly speaking, working in private sector (informal) is exploitive most of the time and everyone wants to be part of Govt initiatives rather than private sector.
kartik seetharaman
One obvious area is healthcare… Read about parents paying exhorbitant sums to private colleges for medical education…while number of doctors are woefully low per 10000 population…
With so many passing out without jobs… this is an obvious sector where things should be addressed ina war footing..
CK
More, more and more start-ups are required to create jobs. Govt must incentivize the start-up ecosystem in a big,big way. Angel tax system must be simplified. Food, health, renewable energy and agri start-ups are the hottest areas.