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For a country with the largest number of bonded child labour in the world, and 3 million children in enforced mafia/police/state prostitution....... the labour laws clearly don't work where they matter.
Indian capitalism is savage, and the 25,000 odd labour laws irrelevant.
From my law school days, the basic axiom was if the law is worthless/unworkable, then get rid of it, and replace it.
In addition as the East India Company/British Raj destroyed Indian Industry (25% of the world in 1750).....they paradoxically at the same time introduced MORE LABOUR regulation and INDUSTRIAL regulation.
Thus Indian Industry through Imperial BABUDOM was hampered.
The so-called 'License Raj' was a natural post colonial expression of that, created by the witless Macauley brown Sahibs.
In such a hostile business environment the MFS (most favored sycophants) suddenly became oligarchical successes, under the Raj......TATA...Birla.
India is a tough environment to do business FOR INDIANS.
If Modi from pro-Business Gujjiland can sort this problem out, without half measures, then all is good and finally India in 10 years can take its respected place as a historical Industrial hub.
The value of Industrial production in India is about $1100 billion behind the USA...$3700 billion, and China at $8000 billion.
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'25,000 laws don't protect 90% of the workforce'
The notion that more labour laws offer more labour protection deserves Mahatma Gandhi's 1942 quip to an offer from the British as "a post-dated cheque on a failing bank". India's 25,000+ labour laws don't protect 90% of our workers and have murdered formal job creation because entrepreneurs cannot comply with 100% of our labour laws without violating 10% of them.
India needs fewer and simpler laws that
are mercilessly enforced. It's been the unfortunate destiny of job
creation to have labour law reform equated with hire and fi re. This
policy immaturity represented an unwillingness to accept that there's a
lot of regulatory cholesterol outside Chapter 5B of the Industrial
Disputes Act. The labour law announcements of this week are bold,
impactful and terrific because they focus on plumbing rather than
poetry. Plumbing matters. 
India's 6.3 crore enterprises
translate to 7,500 companies with a paidup capital of over Rs 10 crore.
Only 12% of our labour force works in manufacturing (same as
postindustrial US) and 100% of net job creation since 1991 has happened
in informal jobs. Our labour laws breed informality and corruption while
murdering manufacturing employment. 
A functioning labour laws
and benefits portal with a unique number for employees and employers has
many interesting applications of emerging technologies of social,
mobile, analytics and cloud that'll revolutionize the mess by which 50%
of EPFO accounts are orphan and most new ESI subscribers end their
employment before they receive permanent cards. 
It'll enable
better enforcement of laws. The revamped inspection regime discards the
notion that employers are guilty until proven innocent; I can guarantee
you this will reduce the marriage premium and wealth of labour
inspectors (particularly those from EPFO and ESI). The new
apprenticeship programme is overdue; if India had the same proportion of
its labour force in apprenticeships as Germany we would have 15 million
of them. We have 3 lakh. This new scheme wisely places
learning-by-doing and learning-while-earning at the heart of repairing
and preparing our youth for jobs because skills change young lives in a
way that no subsidy can. 
The agenda is far from complete. We
need competition for EPFO and ESI. We need to make EPF contribution
voluntary. We need to consolidate our multiple labour laws into a few
that make minimum wages, safety condition, benefits and leave
non-negotiable and then enforce them without fear or favour. 
The truth in a former Chief, Labour Commission of India, saying he was
"trying to enforce the enforceable" should be unacceptable. India has
been a hostile habitat for entrepreneurship and labour laws have been an
important part of this hostility. An employment contract that is
marriage without divorce must change. But that time is not now. These
changes are policymaking with real impact as the only real social
security India can afford is job creation and skills. These are a
wonderful down payment..(The writer is chairman, Teamlease Services)
