Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his government has helped create crores of employment opportunities across sectors in the last four and a half years.

The remarks assume significance as they come after the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, an independent think tank, recently estimated that 11 million jobs in the country were lost in 2018, with the rural sector being the worst hit.

"Be it tourism, manufacturing or the services sector, crores of employment opportunities have been created in the last four and a half years," Modi said, after inaugurating a shopping festival here.

In 2017, the then Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya had said the growth of the Indian economy was not translating into more employment.

Modi said the government is helping the micro, small and medium enterprises in every possible way and cited a list of initiatives taken by it in this segment.

The move to increase interest subvention to 5 per cent and including merchant exporters in the scheme's ambit is likely to benefit exporters by Rs 600 crore, he said.

Modi said the government has created the GEM (Government E Marketplace) portal for smaller enterprises. The platform has witnessed trade of Rs 16,500 crore till now, he said.

The country is now moving towards a system where banks will extend credit based only on GST returns, Modi said. Efforts are on to streamline the indirect taxation reform, he said.

Modi also inaugurated a statue of ISRO founder Vikram Sarabhai, and said instilling scientific temper in more people will be the real tribute to the scientist.