The Skill Zone
The Manohar Lal Khattar government thinks skilling Haryana’s youth is the key to unleashing the animal spirits of the state. It also won in the most improved category for entrepreneurship
As the Manohar Lal Khattar government enters its second term, its biggest challenge is to create job opportunities and encourage entrepreneurship in the state. In its previous term, by ensuring full compliance with the Business Reform Action Plan 2018, it improved Haryana’s ranking in the national ease of doing business index from 14th to third. But with the slowdown in manufacturing, especially the automobile sector, Khattar’s worst nightmare—auxiliary factories shutting down, leading to skilled labour losing jobs—is coming true.
The state is a major exporter of software, and the factories around towns like Manesar and Faridabad make up almost 60 per cent of the country’s automobile manufacturing capacity. The state’s proximity to Delhi’s international airport has also led to almost 300 of the Fortune 500 businesses setting up their India headquarters in Gurugram, creating an ecosystem for enhancing entrepreneurship in the region. But this cuts both ways. As an industrialist says, “This is also why the impact of the slowdown is and will be felt most in the state.”
However, the chief minister, who is personally monitoring the situation, is confident that the base created by his government in its previous term is solid enough to ensure that workers find new jobs. “The state will help them,” he says. The chief minister told india today, “We have tried to use technology to reduce the [bureaucratic red tape]. Most of the decision-making in the state is now process- and merit-oriented.” Harbhajan Singh, zonal chairman of the industry lobby group CII, added
that industries look for [government] support before investing in fourth-generation manufacturing dominated by automation. “Haryana is very industryand business-friendly. And the new government’s focus will be to make the processes easier,” says Khattar.
The chief minister’s confidence is based on the infrastructure that has been created in the state to impart knowledge of various skills. Haryana is the first to set up its own Skills University. In the past two years, the number of industry-integrated courses rose from 2 to 31 at this university. “To provide technical skills for blue-collar jobs, we have tied up with industry players. We have provided funds and faculty to help our youth re-skill in order to learn new trades and take up new jobs.”
The debt taken on by Haryana under the PM MUDRA Yojana is also fairly low compared to states in other parts of the country. 716,622 loans were sanctioned in fiscal 2016-17, disbursing a total of Rs 3,698 crore. The amount rose to Rs 7,282 crore in 201819 with 1,081,972 loans sanctioned. But Haryana continues to do well, as it is connecting skill-development with disbursement of these loans. Aside from such efforts, the chief minister also says that his government is working to make logistics and infrastructure available for entrepreneurs.
There are several initiatives when it comes to infrastructure as well. Apart from the Kundli-ManesarPalwal expressway, the government of Haryana has asked for an orbit track to be constructed, connecting to the Dedicated Freight Corridor network. Two new domestic airports are also being planned, one in Hissar and another in Karnal. “All these will create more business opportunities and avenues for entrepreneurs,” says a top minister in the state government.
However, there are also some points of concern. A household survey by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy notes that 28.7 per cent of the state’s population is unemployed and seeking jobs, the highest in the country. The JJP, the BJP’s partner in the state, announced in the state assembly in November that the BJP-JJP coalition would bring a bill in the next session of the House to provide 75 per cent of private sector jobs to local youths, while the BJP spoke of incentivising private industries willing to provide 95 per cent of their jobs to the youth in Haryana. However, the challenge to turn workers into entrepreneurs, rather than jobseekers, remains. ■