Kiran Mazumdar expresses concerns on 'jobless' growth in India

Biotechnology entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar expressed concerns on "jobless" growth in India and too many "stifling" regulations. She called for formulation of pragmatic and visionary polices to create new employment opportunities.

"Yes, we are witnessing jobless growth (in India) but that's not because of automation. It's because of poor industrial and agricultural policies that are not creating infrastructure development, manufacturing and services jobs," she told. The Chairperson and MD of Biocon Ltd said restrictive e-regulations that try to protect conventional bricks and mortar jobs are an example of this.

"Unions are pushing back and governments are yielding. Until pragmatism is enforced we are likely to miss the opportunity of creating new jobs based on changing business models. One bright spark is the start-up culture," she said.

Biocon was rated among the world's top 10 employers in the biotechnology industry by an international science magazine last month.

She further added that India needs pragmatic and visionary e-regulations that can unleash the power of e-commerce. "We need to formulate policies that incentivize private sector to invest in mega infrastructure projects. We need to focus on universal healthcare and education for all that will create a large number of jobs", Mazumdar-Shaw said. "There are too many regulations that are stifling growth as indicated by our poor showing on the world index of ease of doing business," she said.