India working to create conducive business environment: Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya

India is working to create a conducive business environment for sustainable economic growth and various reforms have been undertaken to modernise labour market, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said at G20 Labour and Employment Ministers' Meeting (LEMM).

"We are working on creating a conducive business environment for sustainable economic growth."

"In this context, a number of labour law reforms have been undertaken to rationalise and modernise the labour market regulations and working conditions so that large excluded segment of workforce can be brought into the ambit of labour regulatory framework and provided with basic labour rights including social security and wages," Dattatreya was quoted as saying in a statement issued by Labour Ministry today.

Addressing the G20 LEMM on 'More Inclusive Labour Markets' yesterday at Ankara, Turkey, he said India welcomes the focus on inclusive growth and employment generation, acknowledging the urgency of ensuing a job rich growth which is also inclusive, the statement said.

The Minister said it is very critical for India that employment policy takes centre stage of development goals and growth strategy in both national and international context.

Further, he said India is committed to usher in a governance of transparency and accountability and securing inclusive growth, leading to sustainable development.

India adds about 10 million people every year to the workforce so job creation for youth employment is one of the prime focus of employment policy, Dattatreya said.

He said flagship initiatives taken so far include Make In India, Skill India, Digital India, Smart Cities projects so as to encourage domestic industry and attract large scale global investment.

"We look at Make in India as a unique opportunity for job creation in formal sector for our youth. We have also embarked on a massive mission of skilling India, particularly youth, to correct and match the demand for skill sets," he said.

The Labour Ministry is also implementing National Career Service (NCS) project for transforming and strengthening public employment services with an aim to bring job seekers, employers and training providers on a common platform with efficient use of information technology, he added. 

NCS is to provide employment related services such as career counseling, skill development courses, apprenticeship, internships to facilitate online matching of jobs and provide information about opportunities for training and re-skilling.

"Today, NCS is bringing together 1,031 career centers, more than 20.4 million registered job-seekers, 129 career counselors for career guidance, 23,936 skill providers with career building courses, 1,684 registered employers with active jobs in 53 sectors," Dattatreya said.

For its huge unorganised workforce, the Minister said India is committed to extend financial inclusion and social security to the entire population.

"Lack of social protection to unorganised sector is the chief reason for a large proportion of these falling into under-employment and precarious jobs.

"We are working on providing an umbrella smart card to the unorganised sector workers for all social security schemes available to them," he said, adding that this move will bring social security coverage for close to 1 billion people.

The government has also launched three ambitious schemes -- Atal Pension Yojana, Prime Minister Jeevan Jyoti Yojana and Prime Minister Suraksha Bima Yojana -- to provide old age pension, life insurance and accidental insurance for the vulnerable class of workers, Dattatreya said.