Job Creation is the only Remedy for Economic Growth: Venkaiah Naidu

Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu said that India needs to create more jobs for the youth to take advantage of the country's demographic dividend.

The expanding middle class will be the key driver of India’s economic growth in the coming years and the need of the hour is to take full advantage of this demographic numbers by creating adequate job opportunities for the young population, said Naidu said in his addresses to the National Seminar on, Contemporary Challenges and Issues in Finance, Marketing and Taxation in Hyderabad.

He added that merely turning out lakhs of students with degrees is not enough, we have to provide them skills not only to earn livelihood but life skills that will enable them to deal effectively with any situation

Naidu opined that the education system should be re-oriented to not only impart life skills to students, but also to ensure that youngsters remain committed to strong ethical and moral values.

"Whatever be the line of their professional pursuit, they all must remain wedded to India’s age-old cultural and syncretic values best embodied by the concept of Vasudhaika Kutumbakam," he said.

The Vice President said that while tax evasion has to be dealt with sternly, it should be ensured that there is no unnecessary harassment of the tax payers by overzealous officials.

India's tax-to-GDP ratio is 16.6 per cent in FY2017, which compares with 26.0 per cent in the USA, 20.1 per cent in China, and 34.3 per cent in OECD countries.

Transparency in governance will ensure accountability and also improve remittances to the government, he added.

Naidu said that with introduction of GST, the biggest ever tax reform taken since Independence, India is finally 'one-country, one-market'.

He further said that this reform has changed the face of the indirect tax regime in the country as it imposes one tax instead of several taxes by various State Governments and the Union Government.