Hitting out at the Centre, the Congress on Tuesday alleged that deliberate destruction of MSMEs through "neglectful policy-making, a blundering demonetisation, a botched-up GST rollout, and the unplanned Covid-19 lockdown" is partly responsible for the shift away from labour-intensive growth. Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh cited an article in a newspaper highlighting the paradox of ostensibly higher GDP numbers and their failure to create jobs or increase rural wages (adjusted for the increase in prices). The latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) for 2022-2023 indicates that some part of the decline in real wages can be attributed to a decline in labour productivity, Ramesh said. The growth in GVA per worker (a measure of labour productivity) slowed from 6.6 per cent in 2014-15 to 0.6 per cent by 2018-19, the Congress leader said. After Covid-era statistical irregularity, worker productivity contracted again in FY23, he added. The trend away from ...