103 research outputs found
Surviving Covid second wave: Cash support of Rs 15,000 per family a possible solution?
No full textThe Centre for Sustainable Employment at the Bengaluru based Azim Premji University has come out with a report on the State of Working India. Third year into this, their 2021 report focuses on how India's labour market adapted to the coronavirus pandemic in the year 2020. Associate Professor Amit Basole and Senior Research Fellow Rosa Abraham talk to Abhishek Waghmare of Business Standard, to discuss about the hard-hitting findings from their study. They also propose bold policy measures in order to tackle the economic impact, especially when the second wave now seems to be affecting the economy badly, though not as much as the first wave did in 2020
Let us not make job creation in India a number game
No full textOver the past few months, the question of job creation, or lack thereof, in the formal sector of the economy has steadily been in the news. Clearly, the Modi government is feeling the pressure to do something, or at least to be seen to be doing something, about it. The first response to the accusation that the Indian government has failed on the job creation front was in the form of Amit Shah’s statement that it was not jobs that were promised, but livelihoods. So the government would encourage self-employment. Never mind that self-employment has always been the fallback option for those not able to secure jobs. Half of the Indian workforce is self-employed
Informality and Flexible Specialization: Apprenticeships and Knowledge Spillovers in an Indian Silk Weaving Cluster
No full textThis article draws on quantitative and qualitative data from the Banaras (Varanasi) silk weaving cluster in North India to show how informal institutions
based on family and community interact with the relations of production
to enable flexible specialization while reproducing or accentuating inequality.
The family-based apprenticeship system produces a supply of highly
skilled workers but contributes to labour surplus by lowering the costs of entry
and making exit difficult. Surplus labour ensures that productivity gains
resulting from technical improvements do not accrue to weavers as higher
wages. A community of artisans called the naqsheband (designers) produces
fabric patterns that are central to the industry’s market. Geographical clustering
results in quick diffusion of these designs and free imitation is the key
to innovation. But this entails hyper-competition, conservative changes, a
culture of secrecy and quickly dissipating monopoly rents. The Banaras case
enables us to understand how collective efficiencies, as well as inefficiencies,
are created by the same institutions
Structural Transformation and Employment Generation in India: Past Performance and the Way Forward
No full textHistorical experience suggests that a sustained rise in per capita incomes and improvement in employment conditions is not attainable without a structural transformation that moves surplus labour from agriculture and other informal economic activities to higher productivity activities in the non-farm economy. In this paper, I analyse India’s performance from a cross-country comparative perspective, estimating the growth semi-elasticity of structural change. Using a cross-country panel regression, I estimate the effectiveness of growth in moving workers away from agricultural and informal activities as compared to other developing countries at similar levels of per capita income. I show that the performance in pulling workers out of agriculture is as expected given its level and growth of GDP per capita, but the same is not true for pulling workers out of the informal sector. I also propose the following five indicators that need to be kept track of when evaluating the growth process: the growth elasticity of employment, the growth semi-elasticity of structural change, the growth of labour productivity in the subsistence sector, the share of the organised sector in total employment and the workforce participation rate. Comparing these indicators across periods, states, regions or countries, allows us to understand which sets of policies have worked better than others to effective improvements in employment conditions. And taken together the indicators allow us to set structural change targets as well as to say whether the current pattern of growth is going to be sufficient to meet those targets
Wages of inequality: The income-growth gap
No full textThe interim Union budget presented on February 1 was only a vote on account since the general elections are due soon. However, it still gives a picture of the government’s thinking on macroeconomic policy objectives and allows us to ask if the approach is correct, given the challenges currently facing the Indian economy
Book Review: Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age. Christian Fuchs; New York: Routledge, 2008. ISBN: 0415961327; 408 pp. $95.00
No full textLong-run trends in rural wages
No full textWage rates for agricultural and non-agricultural labour in rural India have been in the news recently. First, in his The Indian Express column, Surjit Bhalla argued that demonetization was not bad for the rural economy since the growth of wage rates had increased from around 2% in mid-2016 to 5.7% in mid-2017. There followed a response by Himanshu in The Indian Express, using the same data to show that Bhalla’s conclusions were valid only for select occupations. More importantly, he pointed out that a recovery in rural wages had started before demonetization and that this recovery came on the heels of a longer period of declining real wages since May 2014. However, he used wage levels rather than growth rates in his analysis and interpreted Bhalla as saying that demonetization had increased wage rates. Both these points were criticized by Bhalla in his response
Agrarian Change in North India: Evidence from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh
No full textEarlier on Sanhati (paper here), we have published a study that attempts to understand the evolution of relations of production under which the majority of the working people in India labour. Using aggregate level data for agriculture and informal industry, and drawing on several case studies of the unorganized sector, we have highlighted key aspects of Indian capitalism. One of the major lacuna of that study was the absence of reference to micro/village level studies of agrarian change. This article is part of series of short pieces (the first one was on Bihar) that summarize crucial aspects of the dynamics of agrarian change observed at the village level. Here we take a brief look at Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Subsequent essays in the series will examine state and village-level evidence from Western and Southern India
Jobless growth still the leitmotif
No full textIN what has been termed as a "routine" and "calming" budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's team has checked all the appropriate boxes. Increased outlay for popular schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and for public investment in infrastructure, and tax cuts for small businesses and the lower end of the salaried classes, while keeping to the announced path of fiscal consolidation with a deficit target of 3.2 per cent. Overall the budget contains no big surprises (such as inheritance tax, universal basic income etc.). But after the economic turmoil caused by demonetisation, was this a lost opportunity to make some big changes? Or is it a deliberate attempt to go back to business as usual
Let us not underestimate deprivation in the country
No full textWhat was the status of extreme poverty in India prior to the arrival of the pandemic? Did demonetization increase poverty? Due to lack of official data, these questions remain unanswered. The most recent survey data (2017-18) was not officially released, but leaked reports showed a fall in real consumption and an unprecedented rise in poverty. In this environment, confusion and uncertainty have reigned. So it is welcome news that the National Sample Survey Office is planning to conduct the next round soon
- …
