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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 8:56:24 pm

Congress backs Bollywood, slams Mahayuti government

Mumbai: Throwing its weight behind Bollywood amid a spate of alleged threats and attacks targeting film personalities, the Maharashtra Congress on Saturday slammed the BJP-led Mahayuti government for failing to protect Mumbai’s glamour industry, and warned that the state could could lose out culturally and economically if there was an exodus by filmmakers and actors from Mumbai. State Congress President Harshwardhan Sapkal launched a sharp attack on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a...

Congress backs Bollywood, slams Mahayuti government

Mumbai: Throwing its weight behind Bollywood amid a spate of alleged threats and attacks targeting film personalities, the Maharashtra Congress on Saturday slammed the BJP-led Mahayuti government for failing to protect Mumbai’s glamour industry, and warned that the state could could lose out culturally and economically if there was an exodus by filmmakers and actors from Mumbai. State Congress President Harshwardhan Sapkal launched a sharp attack on Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a lleging that the deteriorating law-and-order situation had emboldened criminal gangs to train guns at Bollywood personalities – considered a ‘soft target’. “Bollywood actors, producers and directors are being openly targeted in Mumbai, and threats are being issued against them. They all live in constant fear,” Sapkal said at a media interaction at Tilak Bhavan, referring to the recent appeal by All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA) to the Centre, as a multi-state police dragnet has been thrown in the past week. Dwelling on the past attacks or threats involving actors Salman Khan, Rohit Shetty and most recently Tiger Shroff, Sapkal questioned “how gangsters could allegedly intimidate the film fraternity while operating from behind bars”. “If gangsters can control the film industry while sitting inside Gujarat’s Sabarmati Central Jail, then what exactly are the police and the BJP governments doing? The appeal by the AICWA reflects the grave situation confronting the entertainment industry,” he said, alleging political patronage had emboldened criminal elements. Warning of the possibility of Bollywood shifting out of Mumbai, Sapkal claimed that already efforts to woo actors and film-makers to other states like Uttar Pradesh have gained momentum. He recalled UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s publicly declaration how he was keen to attract the film industry to his state. The Congress leader wondered “whether the prevailing climate of fear could accelerate the shift”, and said it could deal a big blow to Maharashtra’s cultural identity, employment, economy and its overall image. “If the government cannot control crime and protect people, it should resign,” he reiterated, demanding accountability from the BJP-led Mahayuti government.

From Education to Employment: Bridging India’s Skills Gap

Writer: Sayli Gadakh
Sayli Gadakh
Sep 1
3 min read

A qualification does not always translate into employability. The EEE framework seeks to bridge that gap by connecting education, skills and employment.

 

When Aarav Kulkarni, a commerce graduate from Pune, completed his degree, he had good academic marks but struggled to find a job that matched his qualifications. Like many young Indians, Aarav realised that a degree alone was not enough to secure the right employment. Employers were increasingly looking for practical skills, digital knowledge and relevant industry experience.


His situation reflects a larger challenge facing India — the persistent gap between education and employment, where academic qualifications do not always translate into workplace readiness.


The Union Budget 2026–27 attempts to address this gap through the proposed Education to Employment and Enterprise (EEE) Standing Committee. The initiative aims to connect education, skills, employment and entrepreneurship more closely and create a workforce capable of competing effectively in the global services economy.


From a Chartered Accountant's perspective, the most important aspect is the financial footprint of this approach. The Ministry of Education has been allocated Rs 1,39,289.48 crore for 2026–27, representing an 8.27 per cent increase over the previous budget estimate.


However, the success of such spending cannot be measured only by the amount allocated. The real test will be whether these investments translate into better employability, higher productivity, increased incomes and the creation of new enterprises. In other words, the focus must ultimately be on outcomes rather than expenditure alone.


The EEE framework is expected to focus on service sectors that have strong potential for economic growth, employment and exports. India has set an ambitious long-term objective of increasing its share of the global services market to 10 per cent by 2047, making the development of an appropriately skilled workforce particularly important.


The budget also proposes five university townships near major industrial and logistics corridors. The objective is to bring universities, research institutions, skill centres and industry closer together. Such integration can help address the long-standing mismatch between academic education and industry requirements by creating stronger links between learning and employment.


Another significant measure is the proposal for one girls' hostel in every district, aimed at improving access to higher education, particularly in STEM fields. Greater participation of women in education can eventually translate into greater participation in the workforce and entrepreneurship, strengthening the broader employment ecosystem.


The EEE framework should therefore not be viewed as a single scheme carrying one specific budget allocation. Instead, its financial footprint is spread across education, research, apprenticeships, skilling, digital infrastructure, employment and enterprise development. Its effectiveness will depend on how well these different areas work together.


For businesses, this approach could have long-term financial benefits. A better-trained workforce can reduce recruitment and training costs, improve productivity and help Indian companies compete more effectively internationally. For entrepreneurs and startups, the availability of skilled manpower can also support faster expansion and make it easier to build and scale enterprises.


At the same time, there is a need for strong financial discipline. Government spending should increasingly be linked to measurable outcomes such as placement rates, wages, apprenticeships completed, businesses created and export revenues generated. Merely increasing allocations without monitoring outcomes may limit the impact of the policy.

 

The EEE framework represents an important change in thinking. Instead of treating education as the final destination, it seeks to make education the starting point of a larger economic journey.

 

For students like Aarav, the real success of Budget 2026–27 will not be measured by the size of the Budget alone, but by whether it helps transform a degree into a career, an idea into an enterprise and talent into economic value.


(The writer is a Chartered Accountant based in Thane. Views personal.)

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