India Ratings and Research, on, Thursday, said India will have to raise its labour productivity growth to 6.3% to achieve 8% GDP growth while it has to be up by 7.3% in order to achieve economic growth of 9%. The labour productivity growth in the current financial year has been pegged at 5.2%. Labour productivity during 2004-05 to 2007-08 have stood at 8.5%.“This is 40.4% higher than the level attained in FY19. Given the growth slowdown, this looks unlikely in the near term but is not an insurmountable task,” it said in a statement. India’s labour productivity growth, like other nations, came under pressure in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, especially during FY11-FY15 (5.0%). However, it recovered thereafter and grew at 5.8% during FY16-FY19.According to India Ratings and Research , the challenge on the productivity front for India is twofold. First, how to raise the overall labour productivity to a level that delivers the required GDP growth rate, and secondly how to lift the labour productivity in the lagging sectors so that growth is more evenly balanced and sustainable over the medium- to long-term.Sectors such as manufacturing (7.2%), electricity, gas, and water supply (7.7%), transport, storage, and communications (7.4%), and community, social, and personal services (6.2%) contributed significantly to the overall labour productivity during FY00-FY16, it said.However, the sectors that lagged are construction, agriculture and mining which recorded labour productivity growth of 0.4%, 3.2% and 4.8%, respectively. On the contrary, China maintained a labour productivity of 6.5% and above across all sectors during FY00-FY16, it added.In FY19, India’s labour productivity per person employed in purchasing power parity terms at 2018 prices was $20,367 as against China’s $34,863. “India Ratings and Research believes the quantity of labour along with the non-ICT capital will continue to contribute significantly to the GDP growth due to the demographic composition,” it said, adding any decline in the contribution of quality of labour and ICT capital is a matter of concern.