Question of The Day

Which is/are the labour intensive sector out of the following identified for promotion by the special group ? 

In view of the centrality of the employment objective in the overall process of socio-economic development as also to ensure availability of work opportunities in sufficient numbers, Special Group On Targeting Ten Million Employment Opportunities Per year Over the Tenth Plan Period was constituted by the Planning Commission under the Chairmanship of Dr. S.P. Gupta, Member, Planning Commission. Considering the need for generating employment opportunities which are gainful, the Special Group has recommended the use of Current Daily Status for measuring employment, as this measure of employment is net of the varying degrees of underemployment experienced by those who are otherwise classified employed on usual status basis. The group has noted the decline in the rate of growth of population, labour and work force, but an increase in the unemployment rate during 1993-94 and 1999-2000, although the overall growth performance of the economy has been better than the previous decade.
        In view of the declining employment elasticity of growth, observed during the period 1994-2000, the Group has recommended that over and above the employment generated  in the process of present structure of growth, there is a need to promote certain identified labour intensive activities. These sectors are agriculture and allied activities, small and medium industries, information technology, construction, tourism, financial sector, education and health, etc. With proper policy initiatives taken in these labour intensive sectors, an additional 20 million jobs will be created during the Tenth Plan. The report also identified ministrywise progammes/targets for achieving the ten million employment opportunities per year.
        The Special Group recommended policies and programmes which would enable the skill levels of the labour force to match those required for the new jobs to be created during the Tenth Plan. The recommendations of the Special Group have been suitably incorporated in the employment strategy for the Tenth Five year Plan by the Planning Commission.
        Organised sector employment as on March 31, 2001 was 27.8 million out of which public sector employment stood at 19.1 million and private sector at 8.7 million. The public sector accounted for about 69 percent of the total employment in the organised sector in 2001. There was a marginal decrease of 0.6 per cent in employment in the organised sector in 2001 as compared to the previous year. While employment in the public sector declined by 0.9 per cent in 2001 over 2000, employment in the private sector increased by 0.1 per cent.
            Only a small percentage (8 to 9 per cent) of the total workforce of the country is employed in the organised sector. While employment growth in the private organised sector significantly improved in the 1990s, the growth of employment  in the public sector was negligible. Since the public sector accounts or more than two thirds of the total organised sector employment, there was slow down of the overall growth in the organised sector employment.

all of the above