THE FUTURE OF LABOUR

In his televised address to the nation on May 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked past arguably more pressing questions to focus our attention on the broad-sweep reforms he had in mind to reshape the Indian economy. A key area of reform, he told us, was labour. India’s labour laws have often been seen as a big impediment to economic progress. An attempt was made last year to recodify them, but it’s a work in progress and still mainly restricted to central laws.

Meanwhile, in an apparent attempt to resuscitate economic activity, and even in the face of a flight of labour from the country’s big industrial centres, several states have announced their own industry-friendly tweaks to labour laws. The desperation among the state governments is evident. The COVID-19 pandemic