RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra on mindset of Indian youth towards MNC jobs vs entrepreneurship: ‘When I left college…’

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra has highlighted the shifting mindset of the country's youth, calling it “remarkable” that graduates now prefer entrepreneurship to jobs in multinational companies.

“When I left college, getting a job in a MNC was the preferred choice. None took up the challenge of starting a venture of his own,” Sanjay Malhotra said, while speaking at the US-India Economic Forum in Washington DC.

“In recent years, however, a large number of engineering and management graduates are taking to entrepreneurship and startups. It is encouraging to note that India is fast becoming a nation of job creators rather than job seekers.” he added.

‘Growing Culture of Entrepreneurship among Indian Youth’

As per Sanjay Malhotra, this growing culture of enterpreneurship has helped build a “strong startup ecosystem” in India, ANI reported.

He noted that the country has 1,50,000 recognised startups, the third largest number of unicorns in the world, and has climbed up the ranks of the Global Innovation Index to 39th position in 2024, from 81 — in fact among middle-income countries, India ranks first.

On Government Reforms

Sanjay Malhotra also noted that these startups receive support from the government through initiatives like Atal Innovation Mission, Digital India and Startup India, it added.

He also said that government reforms have led to massive savings, and listed the following as triumphs:

• Digitalisation of various government programmes like public distribution scheme with Aadhaar has resulted in huge savings.
• Just in time flow of funds to state government has helped the Centre improve its cash flow management.
• Initiatives such as the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) significantly improved government spending efficiency, with savings around $40 billion till March 2023.

The US-India Economic Forum is organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).

(With inputs from ANI)