Modi’s big bang reforms to draw global investors, says NITI Aayog VC

The reforms will include changes in labour laws, privatisation moves, and creation of land banks for new industrial development, said Rajiv Kumar, VC, NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India), who reports directly to Modi.

“They (foreign investors) will have reasons to be happy. You will see a slew of reforms I can assure you of that. We are going to pretty much hit the ground running,” said Kumar in an interview. Modi is Chairman of the think tank.

Kumar was speaking before Modi on Thursday announced members of his new Cabinet.

Kumar said reforms in India’s complicated labour laws will see the light of day as early as the next parliamentary session in July, when the government will place a new bill before the Lower House for approval. It will aim to combine 44 central laws into four codes wages, industrial relations, social security and welfare, and the fourth - occupational safety, health and working conditions.

This should help companies avoid getting embroiled in a series of complicated disputes with their workers and officials that involve regulations set by authorities at different levels of government and can lead to long, drawn-out adjudication in various parts of the legal system. The government could also offer swathes of land to foreign investors from the land banks it plans to create from unutilised land controlled by public sector enterprises, Kumar said.