How India Inc has let us all down, grievously

Tough to reform

Even when it comes to the absence of necessary and overdue second-generation reforms, India Inc cannot escape blame.

Consider labour law reform.

The United Progressive Alliance has failed to work on these; its predecessor, the National Democratic Alliance, hastily rolled back its sole attempt.

But as one well-known liberaliser in the private sector explained to me recently when I lamented this absence, it's tough to reform labour law when Indian companies' relations with their workers are so poor.

By and large, companies have failed to train and pay workers properly; they have illegally transformed their workforces, which now consist of casual employees even in core functions, in violation of law and court judgments; they have imposed intolerably hierarchical practices in their factories.

How can politicians argue that these companies be given further power when they have misused what they have currently, I was asked. I had no reply. Nor, I am sure, do India's CEOs.

Cartoon: Satish Acharya