‘Manufacturing alone won’t create 10L jobs’

MasterCard CEO lauds note ban, GST but wants India to focus on AI

New York, July 24: Emphasising that India should focus on productivity to ensure robust GDP growth, Mastercard president and CEO Ajay Banga cautioned that the country cannot depend on manufacturing alone to create one million jobs a month which it is aspiring for.

“My belief is that what India is trying to do and needs to do more of is democratising productivity. India is all about creating jobs and quality of life. Whether you are a politician or a government employee, private sector person, mother, rich businessman, if you create jobs and you give quality of life that's all India is speaking about now, he said.

The India-born head of the American multinational financial services corporation was addressing the 6th New India Lecture on the topic ‘The Importance and Impact of a Purpose-driven Business’ organised under the aegis of Consul General Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty at the Indian Consulate here.

The lecture series is organised by the Consulate in partnership with the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).

Voicing concern about

MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga made a strong call for India to focus and leverage its tourism industry given the richness and variety in culture that it has to offer.

India’s over-emphasis on manufacturing to grow its economy and create jobs, Mr Banga said, You are thinking only about manufacturing today, everything about India is manufacturing. That’s where I differ.”

“The manufacturing train is a hard train to get on today because supply chains in the world are getting disrupted, trade barriers are going to create further disruption of the supply chain. Besides, the cost of production in India is much higher than the cost of production elsewhere,” he said.

It irritates me no end that India does not get the idea that democratising productivity cannot continue to be done with yesterday’s rules. It needs what is going on today plus more. Yes (it needs) GST, yes demonetisation, yes skill-building and focussing on other sectors like tourism, the Mastercard CEO said.

Giving the reasons why focus on only manufacturing concerns him, Banga said apart from changes in supply chains and trade barriers, AI and robotics will create a different manufacturing environment from the one that has existed in the last 30 years.

India needs to provide a million jobs a month. You cannot create a million jobs a month only from manufacturing. Manufacturing is only one component, he said.