Radhicka Kapoor on Labor-Intensive Manufacturing in India

Podcast Episode

Radhicka Kapoor on Labor-Intensive Manufacturing in India

In this episode of Interpreting India, Radhicka Kapoor joins Sayoudh Roy to discuss the state of labor-intensive manufacturing in India.

By Sayoudh Roy and Radhicka Kapoor

Published on May 11, 2023

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Interpreting India, Radhicka Kapoor joins Sayoudh Roy to discuss the state of labor-intensive manufacturing in India. What is the importance of labor-intensive manufacturing for a country like India? What hurdles does labor-intensive manufacturing face? What has led to the present circumstances in labor-intensive manufacturing?

EPISODE NOTES

India’s development has not been uniform and has leapfrogged from agriculture to services, skipping over a manufacturing phase. However, the agriculture and services sectors typically do not create enough productive jobs for those at the bottom of the education and skills ladder. Thus, there is a need for labor-intensive manufacturing to absorb those with low levels of education and skills, but only around 11–12 percent of the total employment is in manufacturing, and this share has been essentially flat for two decades. There is also too much labor employed in the low-productivity unorganized sector, and there are too few jobs in the high-productivity formal sector. As recently as 2015–16, the unorganized sector continued to employ over 70 percent of total manufacturing employment. Inclusive growth would require us to find ways to enable formal manufacturing to prosper.

In this episode of Interpreting India, Radhicka Kapoor joins Sayoudh Roy to discuss the state of labor-intensive manufacturing in India.

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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