‘The salaryman era is over’: Saurabh Mukherjea warns India’s middle class must pivot fast
The age of the salaryman is over.
That’s the blunt warning from Saurabh Mukherjea, Founder and CIO of Marcellus Investment Managers, who believes that India is entering a new economic phase—one where traditional white-collar jobs are shrinking, and salaried employment is no longer a dependable path for educated, driven Indians.
Speaking on a recent podcast, Mukherjea said the defining theme of this decade will be “the gradual demise of salaried employment as a worthwhile avenue,” citing the twin pressures of AI-driven automation and a collapsing middle-management structure across industries.
“Google says a third of its coding is already done by AI. The same is coming for Indian IT, media, and finance,” Mukherjea noted. Even supervisory roles—the bastion of mid-level corporate careers—are being eroded by technology. “The old model where our parents worked 30 years for one organization is dying. The job construct that built India’s middle class is no longer sustainable.”
But rather than despair, Mukherjea sees opportunity—especially in the JAM trinity: Jandhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile. He credits this trio with democratizing access to identity, banking, and information, particularly for low-income Indians, and setting the stage for a wave of entrepreneurship. “If applied with the same intellect and grit we brought to corporate careers, entrepreneurship can be the new engine of prosperity,” he said.
He also challenged the societal obsession with stability and salaries. “We’re a money-obsessed society. We define success by paychecks. That has to change,” Mukherjea said. “We should be solving for happiness and impact—not just monthly income.”
India, he argued, has the talent and tools to create thousands of micro-entrepreneurs. But what’s needed now is a cultural shift—a move away from Kota coaching, JP Morgan dreams, and the inherited fear of failure. “Families like yours and mine must stop preparing kids to be job-seekers. The jobs won’t be there.”
