No unemployment, no inequality.

"Finance Commission Chairman Arvind Panagariya believes India's main challenge isn't creating jobs but reallocating capital to more labor intensive sectors. Too much capital is tied up in industries that don't hire many workers, he said." ET. Those who are not hired are unemployed. Perhaps, Prof Panagariya should ask them. "Post-2013, the rate of non-farm job creation plummeted sharply, resulting in a surge in the overall unemployment rate. The youth unemployment rate tripled from 6% to 17.8% between 2012 and 2018." Among those who are employed," A mere 14% of Indian employees consider themselves to be 'thriving' in life, while the rest acknowledge they are either 'struggling' or 'suffering', according to the Gallup 2024 State of Global Workplace Report. This finding is notably lower compared to the global average of 34% of employees who feel they are 'thriving." ET. The reason why employees are unhappy may be linked to the enormous gap between what they earn and the CEOs of the companies. "The average salary of a CEO in India stood at Rs 138 million which is an increase of 40% compared to pre-Covid times. Of this remuneration, more than half is linked to short-term and long-term incentives, Deloitte India Executive Performance and Rewards Survey 2024 noted." HT. On the other hand, "As per the Glassdoor data, the monthly salary provided to an Indian citizen ranges between Rs 8,000 to Rs 1,43,000, with the annual average base pay amounting to Rs 9,45,489." cleartax.in. So, average CEO salary is at least 138 times the wages of an average worker. "Jayadev Galla, CMD of Amara Raja Batteries, took home over Rs 520 million as compensation in FY23. That was about 1,872 times the median salary of the company's employees." CEOs at JSW Steel, Hero MotoCorp and Hindalco earn 500-800 times their median employee remuneration. ET. According to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), inequality has declined in India from 2011-12 to 2022-23 as "The Gini coefficient, a statistical measure of inequality in the population, shows a decline, from 0.283 to 0.266 for the rural sector and from 0.363 to 0.314 for the urban sector across the country." TOI. The Gini index "ranges from 0 (or 0%) to 1 (or 100%), with 0 representing perfect equality and 1 representing perfect inequality." Investopedia. Even "Consumption spending in marginalized groups such as Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes rose a percentage point faster every year compared with the other groups, indicating a decline in consumption inequity between upper and lower castes in the country since 2011-12, official data showed." ET. As per the HCES, the richest 5% spend 4.9 times more on food than the poorest 5% in rural areas and 6.1 times in urban areas. However, non-food spending by the richest 5% in rural areas is 11 times higher than the poorest 5%, while in urban areas, the richest 5% spent 15 times more than the poorest 5%. HT. Unemployment is not a problem, just that there are no jobs, said Prof Panagariya. That's why he is a professor.