India to lose 15 lakh jobs by March

With the global financial crisis spreading fast in India, job losses are mounting.
In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Commerce Secretary GK Pillai has said that 15 lakh jobs could be lost in the export sector by March end. Ten lakh or 1 million jobs have already been lost. There is more grim news piling up.
January exports may show a sharp 20 per cent decline even as half of India's gems and jewellery units may shut shop.

Also, the UN labour agency recently said that the global economic downturn could see 40 million more people lose their jobs by the end of the year, taking the unemployment rate to its highest in a decade. Worldwide unemployment by the end of the year will range between 210 million and 230 million people, the agency said in its annual Global Employment Trends report.
In the wake of global economic slowdown, the Indian government has raised the unemployment benefit cover provided to the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) beneficiaries from an existing six months to one year.
The ESIC board also made announcements to increase the budgeted allocation for unemployment allowance under the Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana (RJSKY) to a whopping Rs 10 crore this year.