-Outlook Deputy director, ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia and Country Office for India, Sher Singh Verick on India’s high but “jobless” growth mystery Sher Singh Verick, deputy director, ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia and Country Office for India, strives to unr­avel India’s high but “jobless” growth mystery. Excerpts from an e-mail interview: * On high growth, low jobs Economic growth through investment, consumption and exports generally res­ults in more jobs,...

-The Hindu New Delhi: A group of central ministers led by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet on Thursday to discuss the proposed labour code on wages and the Small Factories Bill, barely two weeks after trade unions led a nationwide strike to express opposition to proposed labour reforms. “The group of ministers will meet on Thursday to discuss the proposed code on wages,” Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said here on the...

-The Hindu The proposed labour reforms seek to weaken worker protection at a time when the Indian economy is not creating enough jobs, and the right kind of jobs. On September 2, 10 trade unions in India organised what was said to be one of the largest labour strikes in history. An estimated 120 million workers took part. The unions were protesting against the government’s unwillingness to grant a 12-point charter of...

-The Indian Express In the industrial areas of the National Capital Region, life is tied to the assembly line. But even if rarely, workers clear a space for that which seems impossible: thought and contemplation, and even the artistic life. When the whir of engines and the clang of metal against obstinate metal die down, when the neon lights go down in hundreds of sooty factory buildings in Haiderpur, Ashish Kumar opens...

-The Indian Express India should learn from China and start with liberalisation of rural land, labour and capital markets before attempting bigger things. Independence Day has come and gone with its usual mix of celebrations, pride and ruminations on how things could be better. Interestingly, several media commentaries tagged the event with the 25th anniversary of economic reforms, launched in 1991 around the same time of the year. They largely dwelt on the theme...