New Delhi, Jul 11 (IANS): Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday that while 12.5 crore jobs have been created in the Indian economy during the last 10 years only 2.9 crore jobs were created in the 10 years before 2014.

He told IANS that the figures had been compiled in an SBI report prepared by the bank’s Group Chief Economic Advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh.

The number of jobs created in the financial years 2014-23 is a more than 4-fold increase from the 2.9 crore jobs created during 2004-14, according to the SBI report.

“Even if we exclude Agriculture, the total number of jobs created in Manufacturing and Services is at 8.9 crores during FY14-FY23 and 6.6 crores during FY04-FY14,” the report states.

The total employment reported by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) registered with the MSME Ministry has crossed the 20 crore mark, data from the Udyam registration portal shows.

As of July 4, 4.68 crore Udyam-registered MSMEs reported 20.19 crore jobs, including 2.32 crore jobs by GST-exempted informal micro-enterprises, up by 66 per cent from 12.1 crore jobs in July last year, showed ERD’s analysis.