Catherwood LibraryILR School

Top advisers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India are urging federal labor law reform for the survival of the national economy. Although Modi made sweeping promises to change Indian labor laws during his campaign in 2014, he has failed to substantially fulfill these. Arvind Panagariya, a Columbia University professor who currently serves as a chief policymaker for the Indian government, claims that local and statewide labor law reform are inadequate and that a serious overhaul of the current federal legislation regarding the hiring and firing of workers and workers’ rights is necessary. The currently stringent laws surrounding hiring and firing workers has not led to better working conditions, but rather companies’ hesitancy to hire any workers at all, clearly to the detriment of the Indian job market as almost a third of individuals between 15-29 years of age are unemployed or not receiving education or job training.