Why keeping youth discontent in check remains Indian PM Modi's biggest challenge

Summary

Exam leaks and a shortage of opportunities have sparked some of the biggest youth protests in years in India Dharmendra Pradhan was forced to resign as India's education minister last month after angry Gen-Z protesters took to the streets over repeated entrance exam paper leaks. Non-farm jobs have not been growing and real wages have stagnated," Santosh Mehrotra, a veteran economist and author of a new book India Out of Work: Rethinking India's Growth Story, told the BBC. "India has a simultaneous problem. India's Gen-Z protests forced the country's education minister to resign last month India has the world's largest youth population with over 360 million people between the ages of 15 and 29. However, "the transition from education to employment remains a major challenge, particularly for graduates", according to the State of Working India 2026 report , external from Azim Premji University. But it has been "magnified" in recent years owing to India's demographic surge - or a growing size of the population entering the workforce - and improved education outcomes. "Between 2004-05 and 2023, while approximately five million graduates were added each year, only around 2.8 million found employment, and an even smaller share entered salaried employment, contributing to rising graduate unemployment and slowing earnings growth," the report finds. However, India will need to think of a new industrial policy to focus on reviving overall manufacturing, he adds. IT hiring has risen in single digits in recent months, unstable contract work is rising, wages have remained stagnant for years and the knowledge-based jobs that Indian STEM graduates took for granted two decades ago are no longer around in big numbers, according to Neeti Sharma, CEO of Team Lease Digital, one of India's most prominent staffing agencies. Because the hiring has also moved from degrees to actual skills," Sharma told the BBC.