Citi feels the heat over India’s job numbers

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Earlier this month, researchers at Citigroup painted a less-than-rosy picture of India’s briskly expanding but deeply uneven economy — one which has struggled to seize the opportunities of its demographic bulge.

The bank’s economists estimated that even if India’s real GDP continues to grow at a clip of 7 per cent, the country can only generate up to 9mn jobs a year — falling short of the roughly 12mn needed to absorb its youthful labour force.

“With the risk of automation and mechanisation lowering…