Few jobs, many people: Employment scene a tinderbox waiting to catch fire?

The challenge of jobs is especially acute because of the current and growing size of India's young population

Earlier this year, newspapers reported that 992 PhD scholars, 23,000 M.Phil holders, 2,50,000 post-graduates and 800,000 graduates were among the nearly 2 million applicants for exams conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) to fill 9,500 posts of typists, village administrative officers (VAO) and stenographers. In late March, it was reported that over 28 million people applied for about 90,000 jobs in the Indian Railways. Even more recently, 200,000 applicants – including 423 with bachelor’s degrees in engineering, 167 MBAs, 543 postgraduates in commerce, 28 with BEds, 34 masters in computer science, 159 M.Scs, 25 with bachelor’s degrees