Abstract
Using Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) data, this paper seeks to provide estimates of rising Proprietorship (IP) in the Industrial sector in India and attempts to link the ownership pattern of industrial enterprises to job creation and wages paid. Evidence since 1984–85 shows that while Proprietorship enterprises have systematically increased in terms of number of factories, the employment generation has not increased at the same pace. They are labour intensive enterprises, yet in terms of size of employment, they are relatively small. This is in sharp contrast to the nature of Industrial Development in the Corporate Sector. The paper conducted Time-series analysis of the determinants of wages for the past thirty years. The evaluation of the Proprietorship enterprises shows the nature of enterprise formation and remuneration to the workers therein. The paper concludes that even as the corporate sector has been experiencing stagnation in terms of employment generation, the wage indexation to statutory levels has protected workers employed therein. In sharp contrast, the rise in the Proprietorship enterprises reflects the growing number of micro-enterprises that are riddled with low capital investments, poor remuneration and worsening employment conditions of vast proportion of the workforce. Thus, the composition of industries matters in employment creation and the wages paid.
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Source: Authors estimates using CSO datasets
Source: Authors estimates using CSO datasets
Source: Authors estimates using CSO datasets
Source: Authors estimates using CSO datasets
Source: Authors estimates using CSO datasets
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Notes
For the smaller units, the agency collecting data is the NSSO. Its datasets classify enterprises into Own account enterprises, Non-directory manufacturing enterprises, and Directory manufacturing enterprises.
See Atkinson and Morelli (2011) for global analysis of capitalism and commodity crisis linkage
Papola and Pais (2007) and Sharma (2006) in their discussion on labour reforms have been extremely critical about the proponents who have unilaterally implemented the industrial disputes act to rationalise work practices in the organised sector. In fact they argue that the burgeoning amp in the informal sector due to the limited interpretation of the policy should be in fact supported with conducive regulatory mechanisms in the informal sector to create organised sector – like work conditions
This definition captures basic compensation and housing allowance, but does not include social protection (CSO 2011, p. 79, Annexure II).
The RHO values and the Durbin Watson statistic reject the presence of serial correlation, with the exception of Eq. 1(3)
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I would like to thank Ms. Pareen Sachdeva for providing useful research assistance for completion of the work. The usual caveats apply.
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Iyer, S.S. India’s fragile industrial landscape and worker’s remuneration: some unanswered paradoxes. Ind. J. Labour Econ. 60, 371–387 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-018-0103-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-018-0103-x