India needs to improve labour laws to create better, safe and well-paying jobs, says the Economic Survey 2015-16
GN Bureau | February 26, 2016
The Economic Survey 2015-16 has highlighted the need to create enough good jobs that are safe and pay well, and encourage firms and workers to improve skills and productivity.
Expressing concern on the lack of job growth, the report has pointed out that jobs in formal sector have gone down “possibly due to increased use of contract labour.” The survey also stressed that the challenge of creating good jobs of India should be seen as a challenge of creating more formal sector jobs that can guarantee workers’ protection.
According to the survey while 42 lakh new establishments were set up between 1989 and 2010, only 1.05 crore new jobs were created during the period, of which 37 lakh or just 35 percent were in the formal sector.
Hinting at the possible reason for the growth in contract labour, the survey highlighted that medium sized formal sector manufacturing firms have reported labour regulations to be a significant barrier to growth, specifically the dismissal norm under the Industrial Disputes Act and the cumbersome nature of compliance with labour regulations.
The survey further reports that the number of contract workers has increased from 12 percent of all registered manufacturing workers in 1999 to over 25 percent 2010 on account of firms’ attitude to negotiate with labour regulations just to boost their production without facing any kind of labour unrest.
Recent stories of stolen railway wires, disappearing communication towers and missing public infrastructure are often treated as bizarre law-and-order failures of India. Yet they raise a more fundamental question. Why does the State often discover the disappearance of a public asset only after it has alrea
India appears to be investing fresh dynamism in its Indo-Pacific strategy. At the time when the US, under president Donald Trump, has adopted a conciliatory approach towards China and has changed the name of America’s Indo-Pacific Command to just Pacific Command, India has quietly moved towards con
Maharashtra`s fiscal management has come under sharp scrutiny after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its State Finances Audit Report for 2024-25, flagged significant budgetary inefficiencies, accounting irregularities, understatement of key fiscal indicators and widespread governanc
Some neglect is loud. This kind is quiet. It sits in research never commissioned, data never collected, questions never asked. In South Asia, that quiet has let the region’s worst health problems stay understudied, underfunded, and out of sight of those who could act.
Mumbai Metro Line 3 (Aqua Line), the city`s first fully underground metro corridor and one of its largest public transport investments, represents a major engineering achievement and has been widely welcomed by commuters. However, the overall commuter experience continues to be constrained by accessibili
Amid uncertainty in the southwest monsoon due to the potential impact of El Niño, the government is addressing the situation with comprehensive preparedness, a clear strategy, and strong ground-level action. While challenges remain, the entire system has been activated in advance and is working proa
