Ninan pointed out that while our agricultural workforce is declining, progress in pulling workers out of the farms had been slow due to “mistaken” policy measures.

Around 15% of the global workforce could be replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI), said TN Ninan, Chairman of Business Standard Limited, at the Chameli Devi Jain Awards presented by The Media Foundation at India International Centre here on Friday.

“The question we must ask is can AI lead to more shared prosperity?,” Ninan asked the audience.

On the agriculture sector, he said India could improve its productivity per hectare, stop protecting consumers at the cost of farmers, and invest more in labour-intensive crops such as cotton and rice among others.

Ninan pointed out that while our agricultural workforce is declining, progress in pulling workers out of the farms had been slow due to “mistaken” policy measures.

“Lower tax rates, subsidies to set up industries, relaxing labour laws — none of these have worked effectively to boost industry as manufacturing as a percentage of our GDP has remained stagnant,” Ninan said.

According to Ninan, there has been a growing imbalance between the employee and the employer. “Two in five workers in our organised workforce are contract-based workers… there has been a 5% growth in regular labour, whereas there has been a 23% increase in contractual labour employed in the past few years,” he said.

The Chameli Devi Jain Award was handed out to Ritika Chopra, Bureau Chief and Education Editor, for her work that highlighted rewriting of history in NCERT textbooks, and her reportage on the Election Commission after which the Chief Election Commissioner was reinstated.

Greeshma Kuthar, an independent journalist, also won the award for covering ethnic violence in Manipur.

Source: GWFM Research & Study