The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Flexible labour laws will generate more jobs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 25, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Flexible labour laws will generate more jobs

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: India needs flexible labour laws that encourage industry to create more employment opportunities and lead to a job-led growth in the manufacturing sector, according to Farhad Forbes, director of the Forbes Marshall group of companies.

The existing labour policies influenced the sector to move away from a job-led growth. Instead they should make the sector focus on productivity gains through capital intensive production, Mr. Forbes told the HR conference on "Transforming at the speed of thought" organised here on Friday by the Confederation of Indian Industry. Moreover, such changes were required as the services sector could not absorb the growing young workforce.

Mr. Forbes urged the manufacturing sector to gear up to meet the challenges of absorbing the workforce through job-led growth strategies and by imparting skills to make people more employable. It was important for the sector to have an informal work atmosphere. It should also have team orientation with flexible job roles that promoted learning and innovation, he said.

G. Ravindran, senior vice-president and head (global HR) of Covansys Inc., said a war of talent was on in the services sector. The companies should not confine their hiring strategy only to top colleges but scout for talent in colleges in secondary cities and rural areas. Senior executives from various leading companies highlighted innovative HR practices in the services and manufacturing sectorsa CII press release said.

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