‘Employ backward castes and get rewards’

 

NEW DELHI: The government plans to reward business houses that give jobs to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) workers. 

 

In a bid to persuade the private sector to recruit more people from the backward castes, the government is planning an ‘inclusive’ industrial policy.  The policy will reward business houses that establish units in districts in which SCs and STs account for the bulk of the population.
The government has identified 60 districts where SCs and STs constitute more than 50 per cent of the population.   

 

“A host of liberal fiscal and other incentives will be given to companies setting up units in these areas employing local people,” a government source said.

 

The tax rewards will be measured against the number of jobs created by the industrial units in these districts. “Tax breaks will be given on the wage bill of those employees who are covered under the Employees State Insurance (ESI) scheme. The idea is to ensure that the wage bill, which is eligible for tax benefits, should mainly comprise lower-level workers and not those in senior and top management positions,” he said.

 

The policy, being given the final touches in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, has the full support of the prime minister’s office and is being monitored by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath. Nath, without elaborating, had stated in Hanover last week that he would take up the new policy with the Cabinet in the next six weeks.

 

The selected districts are backward in terms of both agricultural productivity and industrial development. ‘’If the people of these areas are employed and taken on board, we will move towards inclusive growth,” the source said.

 

The government had to virtually drop the proposal, which was under the consideration of a group of ministers (GoM), for legislation on reservation of jobs in the private sector.

 

The proposal met with tough resistance not only from the industry but also from many of the Cabinet ministers who argued, within the GoM meetings, that India’s image as a top quality manufacturing hub for the Fortune-500 companies, would suffer if the government insisted on job quota in private firms.

 

The industry, on the other hand, led by the chambers, offered affirmative options for the labour-intensive units. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has set up a task force under its past president and former Tata Steel CMD JJ Irani to develop a report on the issue.

 

The government expects that industries linked with food processing, agriculture, handicrafts and tribal products will be enthusiastic about the proposed industrial policy, which would lay emphasis on employment generation rather than only on value addition.

 

Unlike in the case of special economic zones (SEZs), where the finance ministry is opposed to fiscal largesse to units, the industry ministry does not expect many hurdles from North Block on the policy for the SC/ST-dominated districts.

 

“Unlike the SEZs, there would be no revenue implications for the backward districts. This is so because the policy would not involve shifting of units, but will encourage the generation of incremental investment,” the source said.

 

 

 

NEW DELHI: The Centre cautioned the Supreme Court on Monday against passing any interim order that might provide 10 per cent quota for scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) in medical colleges.

 

“Such an order would open the floodgates of litigation as it was not envisaged at the time of holding the entrance exam,” Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian said.

 

“If you allow the quota, you will be flooded with litigations from students,” Subramanian said while addressing a bench headed by Justice KG Balakrishnan.  

 

The counsel reiterated that the interim order of 10 per cent reservation passed last Monday could run counter to the larger bench verdict of 2005 by which 50 per cent of the post-graduate medical seats in government colleges were directed to be filled on merit through a common entrance test (CET) conducted by the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

 

SC and ST candidates had not taken the CET as there was no reservation.

 

The pro-rata reservation could be applied to the states that would fill up the remaining 50 per cent seats after carving out the all-India quota.

 

The court will resume the hearing on May 5.