Grand Tamasha

The Truth About India’s Jobs Crisis

Episode Summary

Vidya Mahambare joins Milan on the Season 16 premiere of Grand Tamasha to discuss the economic drivers of the Gen Z protests, the link between unemployment and education, and the futility of the manufacturing versus services debate.

Episode Notes

Over the summer, thousands of young Indians took to the streets to demand sweeping reforms of the higher education sector. This unexpected wave of Gen Z mobilization was catalyzed by the emergence of the Cockroach Janata Party, a satirical meme that blossomed into a national movement. Protests that began over the state of higher education soon tapped into something much larger: growing frustration among young Indians over jobs, economic opportunity, and their prospects for the future.

India’s jobs debate is often framed around a familiar set of concerns: too many people working in agriculture, too few manufacturing jobs, an economy that is too-services oriented, and stubbornly high unemployment among the young. Our guest on the show this week has views on these subjects that often cut against the conventional wisdom. 

Vidya Mahambare is the Union Bank Chair Professor of Economics and Director at the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai. She studies central banking and monetary policy, structural transformation, labor market dynamics and gender economics. She is also a prolific commentator and writes regularly for outlets like Mint, Business Standard, and The Print.

She joins Milan on the Season 16 premiere of Grand Tamasha to discuss the economic drivers of the Gen Z protests, the link between unemployment and education, and the futility of the manufacturing versus services debate. Plus, the two discuss the exodus of young people from the agricultural sector, the misleading headlines on female labor force participation, and India’s acute urban housing shortage.

Episode notes:

  1. Vidya Mahambare and Vivek Yadav, “Indian farms have been losing their workers—at a time they need the youth to improve farming,” Mint, July 20, 2026. 
  2. Vidya Mahambare and Vivek Yadav, “Employed women in Uttar Pradesh—what explains such a large increase within a decade?” Mint, July 1, 2026.
  3. Vidya Mahambare and Asrar Alam, “Elusive jobs: how AI will demand even greater patience of India’s unemployed youth,” Mint May 11, 2026.
  4. Vidya Mahambare and Poonam Munjal, “Are young Indians under or overworked? Both are true but AI may change work hours as we go along,” Mint, April 14, 2026.
  5. Vidya Mahambare, “Urbanization pressure: India’s housing policy needs a rethink,” Mint, April 22, 2024.
  6. Vidya Mahambare et al., “The employment profile of India’s young adults,” Hindu Business Line, May 5, 2026.
  7. At 11:29 in the recording, the guest misspoke when she said: “By 2025, we want to have a 50% of higher education rate in India." She later clarified that she meant to say 2035, not 2025.