Ever since the Narendra Modi-led BJP has come to power at the Centre, it has been highlighting creation of jobs as one of its major objectives. In an action plan, the NITI Aayog has strongly pitched for mega coastal economic zones to drive India's export-led growth strategy and create thousands of jobs, reports the Times of India.

As per its sources, in a presentation, the panel's vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya pointed to the experience of Japan, South Korea and China and argued how exports played a key role in sustained rapid growth by these three Asian giants and made a strong case for creating these mega zones to help India win the exports game in world markets. The idea is to build these zones along with the Sagarmala project which aims to modernise the country ports, the report adds.

The presentation, as per sources, pointed that “India, with its large labour force, is in an advantageous position to benefit from the slowdown in China and could tap into the demand from global firms eying alternative manufacturing countries with large and steady supply of labour”, the report said.