Global rating agencies are taking a close look at the ease of doing business in different countries across the world, including India, reckoning a set of parameters, focussing on laws and regulations framed by the Governments as well as their ways and levels of implementation. A similar exercise is underway on ranking the land’s States in respect of their current status of ease of doing business, based on parameters, some of which have been slammed in circles of professionals conversant with nuances of doing business. Debates on the subject may or may not make the countries raise their ranks in the global scene and the land’s States to attract investment competitively in days ahead, but the whole world is going about the stern business of earning a living. The litmus test for ease of doing business, unarguably, breaks down to a) Return on investment to the entrepreneur, b) Take home pay packet to the executives and c) Wages to the workforce without cause for bickering. Amidst this volatile ambience, the home-makers at large don’t seem to witness light at the end of the dark tunnel as they are stuck with work-wage disconnect.

Inter-country wars have been invariably fought for expanding both territory and gaining wealth as well as power to rule. Intra-country wars, in a certain sense, is fought between the employer and the employees, the former in pursuit of success in his enterprise and the latter demanding wages on a steadily rising graph. The former kind of wars and the latter kind are different kettles of fish.

Small and micro firms reportedly employ about 94 per cent of more than 460 million workers in the land that section identified as informal workforce. These enterprises take care to keep the number of workers below 20, in order to stay away from the burden of labour compliance laws, according to a staff industry apex body. Its President, speaking to media, has opined that the country had currently an overdose of rules concerning employment of workers, hurting the growth of formal job market in particular and the country’s economic health in general. The Central Government’s 44 labour rules, in addition to more than 100 State-specific laws are learnt to have been introduced for India of a different era, considered as irrelevant to present conditions of the economy.

Job creation and livelihood with wages to meet the expenses on basic necessities (food, shelter, education of children, spend on health and savings) of the families of workers are issues that have to be addressed for achieving a work-wage connect that sustains the country’s expanding work-force and its economic health.