Debate over employment numbers, how Indian colleges rank, and more news in numbers

11 million: The number of jobs that India lost between December 2017 and December 2018, as per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. This led the unemployment rate to rise to 7.4% in December 2018, the highest in 15 months and up from 6.6% in November

Of course, the number has been widely debated, with the government attributing it to poor data quality.

Union ministers feel that although jobs have been created, people are fixated on the bad. When the Indian Railways received 15 million applications for just a few posts, railway minister Piyush Goyal said it had more to do with “job security irrespective of performance” rather than a lack of job opportunities.

What experts say: Mahesh Vyas, CEO and MD of CMIE, wrote that the impact of job losses cut across age groups. “Only the relatively senior middle-aged to senior age groups escaped the fury of shrinking jobs in 2018. The hit was taken entirely by the uneducated. Categories of maximum education level saw an increase in employment.”

10%: The reservation quota announced for the economically weaker section of the general category in higher education and jobs.

The eligibility cut-off: Annual household income under ?8 lakh among other criteria such as land holdings and size of the house. Interestingly, that would cover nearly all of India’s population that currently doesn’t enjoy any quota. As per a Mint report, a little over 1% of the country has an annual household income of over ?8 lakh.

In addition, the HRD ministry announced a 25% increase in seats at higher educational institutions and universities.

What experts say: According to Jay Dev Dubey, consultant at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the most challenging hurdle is a lack of job creation, particularly in the public sector. “There is no foolproof plan. The government is feeding for election purposes. There aren’t enough jobs, so reservation is not going to help.” An Economic Times report shows there has been a drop of 20% in central government jobs between 1995 and 2014, even as the share of public sector jobs in the organised sector itself has shrunk.

25: The number of higher educational institutions in India which figured among the top 200 in Times Higher Education Emerging Economies University Rankings. The list was led by Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

IIT Bombay, Roorkee, Kanpur were among the top ranking institutes. Four of the top five institutions in the region were from China. One area where Indian institutions were said to be lacking was in their international outlook.

India also falls behind in the gender mix of students. While only 21% students at IISc are women, the ratio is more abysmal at the IITs. Tsinghua University in China, which ranked first, boasted 34% female students. Peking University, at the second spot, had a near 50% ratio.

What experts say: According to Jayan Jose Thomas, Associate Professor of Economics at IIT Delhi, there is a need to bring in more international faculty and students, but this should not come at the cost of social commitments. “India is trying to achieve a higher rank partly by publishing international journals, but often topics that are fashionable for them, are not important for India. For instance, in the field of pharma, interest in global diseases would be high but that would not be the case for say chikungunya.

IITs are actually working to change lift the gender ratio, but diversity needs to promoted for everyone - those with disabilities, those coming from rural areas, etc. JNU, for instance, has incorporated such considerations. While we look for international candidates, we need to look within the country for more diversity and this should not be overlooked just to achieve a higher rank,” he said.

Do you think Indian universities need to work on their exposure to foreign countries? What do these rankings speak of our educational system? Share your thoughts.

$5.62 bn: The dent that the government’s new e-commerce’s regulations could make in online sales, per a Crisil report. The commerce ministry’s recent announcements cap the percentage procurement for sellers from online marketplaces and exclusive partnerships with brands. This impact is likely to be most pronounced for the electronic and apparel segments.

The flip side: a windfall gain for brick-and-mortar stores. Even if offline retailers lap up a fourth of these lost sales, their profit gains will be upwards of ?10,000 crore, the report says.

What experts say: “Without taking sides, it can be easily interpreted that these regulations will eventually result in consolidation of online and offline operations, which will be an untapped goldmine for retailers – both big and small. With Reliance Jio entering the fintech space by providing PoS devices for merchants, cashless transactions combined with local in-store offers aimed at creating online-offline hybrid sales model will carve the way forward,” said Rahul Dev Kumar, patent attorney and business strategy lawyer.

<5%: The growth in luxury car sales in India in 2018, down from 17% in the previous year. A volatile stock market, tight liquidity conditions and higher insurance costs and lending rates are some of the reasons industry experts cite for the poor show.

For Mercedes and Audi, the slide in volume growth has been especially painful. While the former saw 1.4% growth in 2018 compared to 16% in 2017, the latter witnessed a decline of 11% last year. As per JATO dynamics, a global automotive data and consultancy firm, the subdued single-digit growth in this segment is likely to continue for the next few years.

What experts say: “The size of the segment does not do justice to the number of high net-worth people,” says Ravi Bhatia, president, JATO Dynamics India. “The commonly held belief is that high taxation has stymied the growth of the luxury car segment in India,” he says. Sugato Sen, deputy director general of SIAM, says the entire passenger vehicle industry in India itself is facing a slowdown. The industry is banking on enhanced economic activity in the next few months due to the upcoming Union Budget and increased spending on infrastructure and real estate.

Do these numbers surprise you? Which other industries would you like us to track in the coming weeks? Join the conversation.