Hyderabad: The Centre is looking to create one crore job opportunities for the youth in the next two to three years, with a major chunk in the textiles, garments and apparels sector, said Union minister for labour and employment Bandaru Dattatreya on Saturday.
Mr Dattatreya said that to encourage creation of new jobs in small and medium scale industries, the Centre has decided to give 12 per cent Employee Provident Fund contribution to all newly-recruited workers for a period of three years.
Mr Dattatreya said that he plans to meet representatives of industry units in Nacharam, Patancheru, Katedan, Jeedimetla etc. to make sure they take up hiring regularly.
The Centre has allotted Rs 1,000 crore for this purpose, he said. He said he will pursue in Parliament the issue of amending EPF applicability to all firms with minimum 10 employees from the previous 20.
In its efforts to boost the textile and apparel industry and transform the country into a major hub like Bangladesh and Vietnam, the Centre will be pumping in Rs 6,000 crore in the coming years. This would also create job opportunities for scores of people, with 75 per cent beneficiaries likely to be women.
He added that the decision on increasing investments in Exchange Traded Funds will be discussed in the July 7 Central Board of Trustees meeting.
The Union finance ministry had earlier issued a notification to make 5 to 15 percent of equity investment, but Labour Ministry preferred to invest only 5 percent.
