The Challenge of Employment in Globalising India

It is widely acknowledged that India faces enormous challenges in generating decent employment. However, the policies and strategies on labour and employment constitute one of the most contentious issues in the country after the initiation of globalisation. Debates with stated positions on this issue, some of them fierce, have been marked by ambiguity and a lack of clear direction.

India Labour and Employment Report 2014, prepared by the Institute for Human Development (IHD), in collaboration with the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), is a major work. The first of its kind, it comprehensively documents and analyses major trends in the structure and pattern of labour markets since the 1990s, while succinctly highlighting the important employment challenges. The Report has been prepared by a group of well-known development and labour economists associated with the IHD and ISLE, such as T S Papola, D N Reddy, Gerry Rodgers and Ajit Ghose, with Alakh N Sharma, director, IHD, and editor, Indian Journal of Labour Economics, as its principal author and editor. Planned to be brought out biennially by the IHD, the first Report assesses the gains and losses to labour in the period since globalisation began.