India has demonstrated remarkable economic trajectory throughout the twenty-first century, establishing itself as one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. The nation possesses several favorable demographic and economic indicators that augur well for sustained future growth, most notably its youthful working-age population, which represents the largest such demographic globally. However, India presents a compelling paradox in contemporary economic development, wherein the nation maintains its position as the world's fastest-growing major economy with projected GDP growth rates of 7 percent and 6.5 percent for fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26 respectively, yet simultaneously confronts significant challenges in employment generation. This study endeavors to examine whether employment growth rates correspond proportionally with GDP expansion, or whether the economy is experiencing the phenomenon of jobless growth. The research methodology encompasses a dual analytical approach: first, investigating the correlation between job creation and GDP growth patterns; second, examining employment trends within selected Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in relation to their revenue and profit trajectories through Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) calculations. The empirical findings reveal that India's labour market structure is undergoing fundamental transformation, becoming increasingly dynamic while simultaneously exhibiting tendencies toward informalisation. The period spanning 2011-12 to 2017-18 demonstrates clear evidence of jobless growth patterns within the economy. Particularly noteworthy is the analysis of Maharatna companies, where employment levels have either declined or remained stagnant across most PSUs, despite concurrent increases in their profit margins and revenue streams during the 2014-15 to 2023-24 timeframe, thereby exemplifying the disconnect between economic performance and employment generation.

The present paper endeavours to assess the fiscal performance of a major States, Uttar Pradesh and a minor state, Uttarakhand separated by Uttar Pradesh in November 2000. The paper highlights that while Uttar Pradesh’s large economy and revenue generation capacity give it an advantage, its high debt burden, reduced social sector spending, and growing central dependence pose fiscal risks. Uttarakhand, despite its smaller size and limited industrial base, exhibits better fiscal discipline, prioritizes human development sectors like education and health, and shows positive signs of debt management. However, its over-reliance on central grants limits its financial independence. The study suggests that both states need to balance infrastructure spending with sustainable social sector investment to ensure long-term fiscal health and economic stability.

Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) represents a substantive reconfiguration of public finance, contesting the long-held assumption of fiscal neutrality and foregrounding equity as a core principle of budgetary governance. This paper optimizes GRB as a paradigm shift that combines gender analysis into the formulation, allocation, execution, and evaluation of public budget, thereby modifying policies into instruments of social justice. It argues that conventional frameworks, aggregate efficiency, and metrics of growth, often creates obstacles in fulfilling gender-differentiated needs and perpetuate structural inequalities that inculcate deviations within labour markets, care economies, and access to public services. Anchored within the normative framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions), the study repositions GRB as a pin-point mechanism for translating global promises into actionable fiscal strategies. By drawing insights from public finance theories, the paper gave an edge to how gender-responsive fiscal intervention targeted social expenditure, gender-sensitive taxation, and investments to create impactful spillover effects, i.e., beyond equity to enhance productivity, human capital formation, long-term economic resilience, and social justice. The analysis further underlines GRB’s role in advancing distributive justice for unpaid and underpaid care workers and correcting allocative inefficiencies in disadvantageous women and marginalized groups. By rooting fairness and transparency into budgetary pipeline, GRB arms democratic governance and rebuilds fiscal discipline and coordination between efficiency and equity rather than a trade-off between the two. In a sense, GRB challenges the growth-centric orthodoxy of public finance and advances a welfare-oriented approach. The paper methodically and indispensably restructures public finance as a mutative tool that harmonizes welfare, justice, and growth. In the context of prevailing gender disparities and evolving challenges, GRB emerges not merely as a corrective policy add-on, but a foundational framework for sustainability in economic governance.