The Narendra Modi government’s third term in office will place reforms in all factors of production, including land, labour and capital on “top of the agenda” along with the “21st century factor” of digital infrastructure, in its pursuit to make India the world’s third-largest economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asserted on Tuesday.
The Minister’s statement assumes significance as it is the first major reference to long-pending reforms in land laws since the government abandoned efforts to reform the land acquisition law in August 2015, after promulgating an ordinance to change the law thrice.
In an interaction with industry leaders hosted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Ms. Sitharaman promised that systemic and area-specific reforms will continue if the present regime returns to power while “next-generation reforms will certainly be on top of the agenda”.
“I will underline the fact that the reforms will touch on all the factors of production. Be it your land, be it your labour, be it your capital, but I will also add what may not fit into the traditional definition of what factors of production are… because the 21st century probably comes up with one more factor of production… the digital infrastructure,” the Minister said.
The government had steered reforms to the labour laws by subsuming over two dozen laws into four Codes on different aspects of work such as Wages and Social Security in 2019 and 2020. However, those are yet to come into force nationally as all States are still to come on board. Labour is a part of the Concurrent list of subjects under the Constitution, so both the Centre and States are competent to enact legislation.
“With all reforms touching each one of these factors of production, I would still say I’ll highlight some areas in which government will push a lot more. We are looking at Space, Artificial Intelligence, Warehousing, not just the agricultural warehousing but the warehousing needs of this country, whether it is semiconductors or precious metals…” she emphasised.
She also outlined making improvements in agricultural value addition and better farm productivity, and boosting tourism as important goals that will get legislative, fiscal and other support.
Ms. Sitharaman nudged Indian industry to step up swiftly on the investment front, just as global investors are betting on India. “You were with India in its freedom fighting moments and built your industry and capacity despite the colonial pressures. It’s time for us to have economic independence with this goal of Viksit Bharat (developed India),” the Finance Minister said.
