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India’s middle class dream, long built on the foundation of stable salaried jobs, may be facing a slow but steady decline, according to market expert Saurabh Mukherjea. The founder of Marcellus Investment Managers, a portfolio management firm, made this striking prediction during a recent podcast titled Beyond the Paycheck: India’s Entrepreneurial Rebirth.
“We are witnessing the beginning of the end for salaried employment as a meaningful career path for educated, hardworking Indians,” Mukherjea said. He believes the 2020s will be defined by a major economic shift—one that challenges the traditional job structure that helped shape India’s middle class.
“The model our parents followed—working for the same organization for 30 years—is collapsing,” he explained. “The job framework that once built and supported India’s middle-class aspirations is no longer sustainable.”
One of the primary drivers of this shift, Mukherjea argues, is the rapid advancement of automation and artificial intelligence (AI). He pointed to how companies like Google already rely on AI to handle a significant portion of their coding—about a third, by some estimates—and warned that Indian industries like IT, finance, and media are not far behind.
“As AI takes over routine white-collar tasks, many mid-level careers are at risk of becoming obsolete,” he said, highlighting an impending crisis for those relying on traditional career paths.
However, Mukherjea also sees a silver lining. The changing economic landscape could usher in a new wave of entrepreneurship in India, driven by the “JAM Trinity” – Jandhan (banking), Aadhaar (digital identity), and Mobile connectivity. He credits the Indian government for building this infrastructure to empower low-income populations with access to identity, finance, and information.
“If we apply the same determination and intellect that once went into climbing corporate ladders, entrepreneurship could become the new engine of prosperity,” he said.
Mukherjea emphasized that Indian society needs to fundamentally rethink its values around jobs, income, and success.
“We’re too obsessed with money and paychecks. We need to shift the focus toward happiness and meaningful impact,” he said. “Families like yours and mine must stop grooming children to become job-seekers. Because those jobs just won’t exist in the future.”
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