‘India failed to occupy space left by China on jobs’

“Jobs in manufacturing such as textile, gems and jewellery and leather that were vacated by China, we could not take advantage of that. “And that went to countries like Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh primarily <g data-gr-id="39">becuase</g>...we did not have appropriate policies for those sectors, be it textiles, gems and jewellery, leather and like that,” Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal said at a seminar on Compliance of Labour Legislations-Issues and Concern.

He said job opportunities in these sectors will aid in growth, encourage setting up <g data-gr-id="43">large</g> number of enterprises and help in exports of related products. India added about 10 million people into the workforce earlier, however, now about 5-7 million join the workforce, as growth in the past few years has mainly been “jobless”. “If we got to create jobs, we got to encourage services sector as well as manufacturing. We were adding almost 10 million people every year in the workforce. This number has come down. However, today we are adding only five-seven million people every year,” Aggarwal said.

Aggarwal said it is necessary to create many jobs at every level and to create a mechanism to ensure and encourage people to create more jobs. OECD last week had forecast China grow at 6.8 per cent in 2015. “The deceleration reflects the restructuring underway in the Chinese economy as services replace manufacturing and real estate investment as the main driver of growth,” the think tank said.

Meanwhile, India has slapped anti-dumping duty of up to $316 per tonne on imports of certain steel products from three countries, including China, to protect domestic producers from below-cost inbound shipments. A duty of $309 per tonne has been imposed on imports from <g data-gr-id="41">China,</g> while $316 per tonne duty has been fixed for Malaysia and $180 per tonne for Korea. The Finance Ministry imposed the duty on the recommendation of Directorate General of Anti-Dumping Duty. 

The duties have been imposed for five years on imports of <g data-gr-id="49">certain</g> variety of hot-rolled flat products of stainless steel used in sectors such as auto. These steel products are used for <g data-gr-id="47">manufacture</g> of process equipment, reactor vessels, material handling equipment, railways, pipes and tubes, automotive components, architecture, building and construction, industrial fabrication and power sector. The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping Duty (DGAD), under the commerce ministry, had initiated and conducted <g data-gr-id="44">investigation</g> into dumping, injury and causal links between dumping and injury to the domestic industry.

Jindal Stainless had filed an application before the authority for initiation of an anti-dumping investigation concerning alleged dumping of certain “Hot Rolled Flat Products of Stainless Steel of ASTM Grade 304 with all its variants” originating in or exported from China, Korea and Malaysia. In its probe, the DGAD had concluded that the goods have been exported to India from these countries below its associated normal value, thus, resulting in dumping of the product.