PM unveils labour reforms to make it easy to do business

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a number of initiatives on labour reforms and ease of doing business, on Thursday.

He dedicated schemes such as portability through a universal account number (UAN) for Employees’ Provident Fund subscribers, a single-window portal to enable doing business, and a labour inspection scheme in the Central sphere. He said all these schemes were already in place and it was only after their implementation that he was launching them formally.

“We need to appreciate labour issues through the perspective of the labourers, so that these can be understood and resolved with compassion,” Modi said, while launching the new initiatives under the ‘Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate Karyakram’.

Inspector Raj The Prime Minister said the Government must trust its citizens, and a big step had been taken in this direction by allowing self-certification of documents by employers.

The portal for employers will allow them to submit a single self-certified return and be in compliance with 16 labour laws. Labour inspection, too, will become transparent as there will be random selection of units for this purpose, ending harassment or the ‘Inspector Raj.’

An inspector will have to upload his report within 72 hours, failing which disciplinary action would be taken.

“Ease of business is the first and foremost requirement if ‘Make in India’ has to be made successful,” he added.