Union Budget 2025-26 should continue to prioritise employment creation: CII

THE Union Budget 2025-26 should continue to prioritise employment creation to har-ness India’s demographic dividend and propel economic growth, apex business chamber CII has said.

It highlighted that the Union Budget for FY25 had outlined a series of initiatives to boost employment generation, including the Employment Linked Incentive Scheme. The forthcoming Budget could announce further measures to boost employment generation, the CII statement said.

India is now the world’s most populous country, boasting 1.45 billion citizens. With a median age of just 29 years, India is also a young country and is set to add 133 million people to its working-age population by 2050.

Mass-scale employment generation is important to engage this young population productively, and to drive inclusive growth, CII said.

The business chamber has proposed an integrated National Employment Policy, which could subsume under its ambit, the slew of employment-generating schemes currently in works by various Ministries.