A report by ‘State of the Urban Youth, India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills’ says: in seven years median individual in India will be 29-year-old, making it home to the largest youth population by 2020
DWINDLING NUMBERS
- In FY 18, unemployment rate in the country stands at 6.1 per cent while in Odisha it is 1 per cent
- It is 5.3 per cent in rural India and 7.8 per cent in urban India
- The 6.1 per cent figure is estimated to be at 45-year-high
BHUBANESWAR: With the rising unemployment grappling the country, educational institutes and individual communities here have pushed for promotion of entrepreneurship in the state to empower the youth with self-sustainability and reliance on oneself.
If the reports of the ‘State of the Urban Youth, India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills’ are to be believed then in about seven years, the median individual in India will be 29-year-old, making it home to the largest youth population by 2020 in the world.
Contrary to this, another report by the ‘Periodic Labour Force Survey’ (PLFS) of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) shows an overall unemployment rate in the country at 6.1 per cent in FY18 with 5.3 per cent in rural India and 7.8 per cent in urban India. This rate has been alleged as the 45-year high in the country.
Observing this, Indian Innovation & Entrepreneurship Community (IIEC) in collaboration with National Institute of Science & Technology (NIST) organised a digital extravaganza event to encourage entrepreneurship in the state. Themed as ‘Can a computer have a vision like a human being’; the event saw participation of about 600 students from Odisha, Jaipur and Delhi.
With the launch of ‘Jazbaa In Odisha’— an initiative aimed to resolve social issues with digital technology— Vimal Daaga, founder IIEC, said, “As part of the programme which felicitated youth for the commendable work they have done with the use of digital technology, they have paved way for social empowerment and motivated to initiate their entrepreneurial journey. This was a one-of-its-kind event in Odisha that saw huge participation of youth from different parts of India. We are working towards inculcating traits of entrepreneurship amongst the engineering students at the right time. In this way we can dream of being founders of companies and not looking only for jobs.”
Meanwhile, with an unemployment rate of 7.1 per cent in 2017-18 in Odisha, the state has beaten the national average of 6.1 per cent. However, the state was also ranked as ‘Top Performer’ by the central government and declared as ‘Champion State’ in terms of startup policy, implementation incubation and other factors, which could have been a potential answer to the high figures of unemployment.
“Presently, about 350 startups have been registered with the state government during the last 20 months. We have targeted to register about 1,000 by 2020. Most of the startups in the state are at validation or traction stage but it is only when these startups will reach the revenue stage, their presence will be felt,” explained Prasant Biswal, startup evangelist with the Government of Odisha.