Mega English Revision Quiz- Score 20/20

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: In the following passage, there are blanks each of which has been numbered. These numbers correspond to the question numbers. Against each question, five words have been suggested, one of which would fill the blank appropriately. Mark the suitable word as the answer.
The 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a (1) infantry regiment that was activated only for civil services in the Union army for three separate terms during the American Civil War. The regiment (2) notoriety as the first unit in the Union army to suffer fatal casualties in action during the Civil War in the Baltimore Riot and the first militia unit to arrive in Washington D.C. in response to President Abraham Lincoln's initial call for 75,000 troops. Private Luther C. Ladd of the 6th Massachusetts is often (3) to as the first Union soldier killed in action during the war.
In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first enlistment, the regiment (4) primarily of companies from Middlesex County. During its first term of service, four out of ten companies of the regiment were from Lowell, Massachusetts. Colonel Edward F. Jones commanded the regiment during its first term. He later (5) the 26th Massachusetts and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general. During its second and third terms of service, the unit was commanded by Colonel Albert S. Follansbee.
The regiment first (6) for a "90-day" term of service which lasted from April 16 to August 2, 1861. Following their engagement in the Baltimore Riot, the 6th Massachusetts (7) to Washington and then returned to Baltimore to guard locations within the city as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Elkridge, Maryland. Their second term of service (8) nine months from August 1862 to June 1863. During this time the 6th Massachusetts was attached to the VII Corps and participated in several expeditions and actions in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, most notably the Siege of Suffolk and the Battle of Carrsville in April and May 1863. Private Joseph S.G. Sweatt's bravery at Carrsville (9) him the Medal of Honor. The 6th Massachusetts served a third term in response to the call for troops to defend fortifications around Washington. During this term, which lasted 100 days from July to October 1864, the 6th Massachusetts garrisoned Fort C. F. Smith was in Arlington, Virginia and (10) Confederate prisoners of war at Fort Delaware near the mouth of the Delaware River.

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com

Direction: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. Certain words are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of these. 
 
Jobs ought to be a prime focus for any Indian government, but a major paradigm shift has taken place which has broken the old link between growth and jobs. In an era of abundant capital, where productivity and output can be raised without adding much labour, every ounce of gross domestic product (GDP) growth today gives a lower bounce in terms of new jobs.
The World Bank’s latest South Asia Economic Focus (Spring) underlines this point as never before. While debunking the headline claim that India, and other South Asian countries, are seeing “jobless growth”, the report emphasises that every percentage point increase in GDP has a lower impact on jobs than before. For South Asia as a whole, the employment elasticity of growth is 0.19 per cent – which means every 1 per cent growth in GDP gets you 0.19 per cent growth in jobs. Put more simply, if India grows at 7.5 per cent, jobs will grow by 1.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
The good news is this: India has not seen jobless growth, and the World Bank report says every 1 per cent growth in GDP creates around 750,000 jobs. At 7.5 per cent GDP growth, which could be our rate in 2018-19, we will be creating about 5.6 million jobs.
The bad news is that given the steep rise in our working age population, we need to create 8.1 million jobs annually. The gap between jobs created and jobs required is already 2.5 million. To absorb all the numbers in jobs, India’s growth rate at the current employment rate of around 50 per cent would need to rise to around 11 per cent – something we have never achieved before. (The employment rate is the number of people working as a proportion of the 15+ working-age population.)
A second bit of bad news is that the jobs created are not necessarily jobs in any conventional sense of the term. Says the report: “regular wage employment, regardless of whether it is formal or informal, is uncommon in South Asia. Regular wage employment does not necessarily mean a nine-to-five job, with a written contract and benefits attached. It simply means that there is a stable and predictable employment-employee relationship, and that the worker can expect to still have the job the following month. But even with this stripped-down definition, across South Asia only around one-tenth of the working-age population has a regular wage job”.
The key issue flagged by the report is that if we want to actually raise the employment rate to levels achieved by some of the south-east Asian countries at this stage in the development cycle, India will need 18 per cent annual GDP growth – a near impossibility. Raising the employment rate from current low levels means getting more people, especially women, to take up wage-paying jobs.
The simple takeout from the World Bank report is this: India’s jobs problem cannot be dealt with purely by focusing on growth. It needs to focus on reforms, especially in labour-intensive industries, so that the tendency to replace labour with capital ends.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been moving in that direction, by allowing companies to offer more fixed-term contracts for workers. The proposal originally meant for the textile industry, has recently been extended to many more industries. Under the Industrial Employment Act, 2016, workers in fixed-term contracts can get all the benefits of normal employment, including wages and social security comparable to regular workers, but non-renewal of contracts at the end of its tenure means termination. The contract can be terminated with two weeks’ notice once a worker has completed three months of service.
This reform is in the right direction, but clearly more reforms are critical. No government in future can act on the presumption that growth is the solution to jobs; growth is a necessary condition for job creation, but not a sufficient one in an era of abundant capital.

Source – Swarajyamag.com