India’s center class faces a looming AI-driven job disaster, warns Marcellus Funding Managers founder Saurabh Mukherjea, who says the nation’s company tradition is changing into aggressively “American” in its pursuit of revenue and effectivity.
Talking on the Bharatvaarta podcast, Mukherjea drew a pointy parallel between India’s evolving company practices and the early waves of job displacement seen within the West throughout the rise of automation within the Nineties.
“We are literally fairly American,” he mentioned. “Our firms are commercially oriented. Hiring and firing norms are altering — and AI is now hitting the workforce arduous.”
Citing latest tendencies, Mukherjea mentioned Indian IT giants like HCL Applied sciences are brazenly aiming to do “extra with fewer individuals.” The shift, he confused, is now not restricted to IT. “Monetary providers, media, administration consultancy — even my job might get automated,” he added.
This wave, he warned, is ready to batter India’s youth-heavy labor market extra severely than older economies like France or Japan. “The median age right here is 28. Roughly 10 million graduates enter the market yearly — and AI hits junior, entry-level jobs hardest,” he defined.
India’s reliance on repetitive white-collar work makes it much more susceptible. “We don’t have as many inventive jobs. Our economic system was constructed on labor arbitrage, and that’s the work AI is finest at disrupting,” he mentioned.
The third blow? An more and more ruthless enterprise ethos. Mukherjea pointed to his personal portfolio firms, the place CEOs have pitched automation plans that will eradicate a 3rd of their workforce inside 5 years. “They inform me, ‘You as a shareholder will profit,’” he recalled. “I’m unsure I would like it, nevertheless it’s clear they do.”
His visits to factories in Chennai and Telangana painted a stark image — complete manufacturing traces now run by machines, with minimal human presence. “From milk to ice cream, it’s all robotized,” he mentioned.
For Mukherjea, this isn’t only a part. “There’s a disruption coming,” he mentioned. “We will’t look to politicians. It’s as much as us — as employees — to adapt.”
