Smart cities will boost India’s employment opportunities, said Scott Wang, World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) Vice President, Asia Pacific. According to Wang, India needs to place greater emphasis on electronic manufacturing to boost India’s employability.
“The Smart City initiative, along with Make in India, can significantly contribute to addressing unemployment by creating hubs for private-public collaboration, international trade and investment, enhanced infrastructure, and telecommunication,” he told businessline.
“Unlike the IT services sector, which is currently India’s strength and requires highly educated individuals, electronic manufacturing has the potential to create employment opportunities that can more effectively tackle the country’s unemployment issue,” he said. Wang also highlighted how employment can be generated through skill development.
According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), for the period July 2023 to June 2024, the overall unemployment rate stood at 10.2 per cent. The unemployment rate for females reached 11 per cent, while for males, it stood at 9.8 per cent. Notably, the joblessness rate for women increased to 3.2 per cent, up from 2.9 per cent as compared to last year.
Currently, the WTCA network covers nearly 40 cities and 20 states in India under its licensing model, and it is looking to expand this to over 50 World Trade Centers (WTC) by 2031. Alongside this, WTCA collaborates with state and central government to serve local businesses and communities, aiding regional economic growth. In India, it has been focusing on tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
WTC helps local businesses include trade information, enabling public-private partnerships, trade education, group trade missions, exhibition services, conference facilities, membership club services, and business centre services.
WTCA was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in New York. The trade organisation started with 15 members from developed countries and has expanded to a global network of over 300 major cities and trade hubs.