AI a big factor in job markets, newer skill sets required to enter certain area, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that that the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on employment in India is visible. In an exclusive interview with Network18’s Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, Sitharaman said the advent of AI means there needs to be a recalibration on several fronts to understand exactly how it will affect the job market. “Because of how AI is coming, the kind of job requirements that are expected of recruits are also changing. So the people with old skill sets are now expected to have additional, newer, skill sets to enter a certain area, which, till now, did not exist. So we are certain lots of calibrations are required in understanding this,” said the Finance Minister. The Finance Minister was speaking against the backdrop of the muted job market in India. When asked despite the economy doing well, why has the campus recruitment this year been muted, Sitharaman said the job economy should not consider just those in the formal sector. “The jobs that are getting created in the middle and lower order are not getting counted at all,” she said. She backed up her assertion by pointing at more new companies getting registered now than ever and said this could not happen without employment being generated. “Companies cannot operate in a vacuum, without human beings. So I think a fairer, open and exhaustive picture of India’s employment, both in the formal and non-formal area will have to have some kind of wider base — we need to bring in such data so that the discussion can be more informed,” the minister said.