The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley comes after major policy decisions last year, one of which was demonetisation. Here are 4 takeaways from responsible business perspective:
• Demonetisation: 93% of India’s workforce is in the informal sector. The Budget speech mentions a long-term focus of moving from an informal economy to a formal economy. Demonetisation, it was mentioned, has strong potential to support greater formalisation of the economy. Yet informal workers were one of the worst affected due to demonetisation. Contract workers lost jobs, and workers in the supply chain lost their livelihood. However, there was no support or relief announced for such workers.
• Labour Reforms: There was a mention of legislative reforms to ‘fostering a conducive labour environment wherein labour rights are protected and harmonious labour relations lead to higher productivity’. It is important that any ‘simplification’ of rights of workers are done in a consultative manner taking into consideration views of diverse worker representatives especially women workers and informal workers. There is also a dire need to make India’s workforce more inclusive with a focused affirmative action drive. These should not be neglected in prioritising ‘ease of doing business’.
• Public Sector Enterprises' Accountability: The FM emphasised that listing of Public Sector Enterprises will foster greater public accountability. PSEs should set higher transparency, ethics and accountability standards for such enterprises. The integrated public sector ‘oil major’ proposed should also set higher benchmarks towards communities and the environment.
• Supply Chains: Civil society organisations should be consulted for preparing the proposed model law on contract farming. This law should protect the rights of small holder farmers and focus on enhancing transparency in supply chains.
This article was originally published on responsiblebiz.org
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