International Workshop

The Political Economy of Industrialization in India:
A Pro-Labour Perspective

Organised byDepartment of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, Chennai, India, andManchester University, UK

Academic Partner

The Political Economy of Industrialization in India:
A Pro-Labour Perspective

An international workshop

Date: 13-04-2022
Time: 9:00 AM (IST) – 5:30 PM (IST)
Venue: Mahatma Hall, Second Floor, Humanities and Sciences Block, IIT Madras,
ChennaiTime Allocation: Each invited speakers will present for 30 minutes followed by adiscussion of 10 minutes.

Organisers
Dr Smytta Yadav, Manchester University, UKDr Santosh Kumar Sahu, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras,Chennai, India
For more details contactMs. Devlina, PhD Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
IIT Madras, Chennai, India, hs19d022@smail.iitm.ac.in, +91 8056271598
Rapporteur: Ms. Jayshree Dutta, PhD Research Scholar, Department of Humanities
and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

The Political Economy of Industrialization in India: A Pro-Labour Perspective
India's first two five year plans gave grave importance to industry-led growth orindustrialization. However, the growth in this sector has been sluggish and has
stagnated at around 25% of GDP. Compared to other developing countries such as
South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, and Brazil at that point, India's industrial growth lagged
far behind. Focus on heavy industries, resource allocation policies, wealthconcentration, too much bureaucratic control and regulations, little public investment
and corruption led to India's industrialization as a mere dream. Post liberalization, India
leapfrogged to services which today account for more than 50% of the GDP. But asignificant share of India's labour force is still employed in the primary and secondary
sector, vastly in the informal sector, almost 86%. The lack of jobs and a vast share of
unskilled labour have forced workers, especially female workers, to take up jobs below
the national or state wage rates, often even lower than their male counterparts. Thisis accompanied by no job security, no or limited social security benefits, poor working
conditions and no leverage to negotiate.
Studies have found cheap labour and weak labour laws to aid inward FDI in India.
Further, there are industry-specific issues that only specific labour communities face.
Labour unions, meant to be actively working pro-labour, often ditch the idea of working
towards the benefit of the labour community. Union leaders often gain political andpersonal help from firm owners, local government leaders, or party heads. How does
one ensure the well-being of the labour in India significantly when more than 80% do
not fall under the radar of labour laws or policies?
To this extent, the workshop aims to understand the current labour force scenario inIndia, both in the formal and informal sector, shaped by the process of industrializationand the political economy surrounding it. It brings experts from various academic
backgrounds, industries, think tanks, and policymakers to provide a holistic view on
the subject, promoting discussions and future works in this field. This event will be
conducted offline at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Madras,
Chennai Campus. List of confirmed speakers from various organisations are listedbelow.

Programme
09:15 AM
09:45 AM

Registration
Welcome address: Prof. Jyotirmaya Tripathy, Head, Department ofHumanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras

10:00 AM

Inaugural Address: Prof. Rabindra Gettu, Dean ICSR, IIT Madras

10:30 AM

Introduction to the workshop: Dr. Smytta Yadav, The University ofManchester, UK

10:45 AM

Prof. Vidya Mahambare, Great Lakes Institute of Management andMember of the Expert Committee of the State Planning Commissionof Tamil Nadu
Indian Workforce in the 21st Century: Patterns, Heterogeneities, andPolicy Priorities

11:30 AM

Prof. Takahiro Sato, Kobe University, Japan
Labour Allocation of the Indian Automobile Industry: With Special
Reference to the Transferability of Japanese Management Practices

12:15 PM

Prof. Sowmya Dhanraj, Madras School of Economics
Location, Location, Location: Regional Disparities in StructuralTransformation, Employment and Standard of Living

1:00 PMLunch, Taramani Guest House, IIT Madras

2:15 PM

Dr. Smytta Yadav, The University of Manchester, UK
A Pro-Labour Critique of 'Make in India' Campaign

3:00 PM

Prof. Swarna Vepa, Madras School of Economics
Growth of Indian Industry and Women's Workforce Participation

3:45 PMMr. Rajdeep Mukherjee, Bay of Bengal Programme, Chennai
Are There Labour in Marine Fisheries Sector in India? Issues ofDefinability, Invisibility, and Approachability

4:30 PMSantosh Kumar Sahu and Devlina
Informal Labour Market and Bribery in India

5:15 PMDiscussion on the workshop: The takeaways and reporting

5:45 PM

Vote of thanks: Dr Santosh Kumar Sahu, Department of Humanities
and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

About organisers
Dr. Smytta Yadav completed her PhD from University of Sussex in Anthropology
followed by her current postdoc in Economic Geography at the University ofManchester. She is the author of the book Precarious labour and informal economy:
Work, anarchy, and society in an Indian village (Palgrave Macmillan). She is the authorof several article including the Journal of African and Asian Studies. apart from thisshe was a Urban Studies International Fellow at the University of Bristol. She isoriginally from Mumbai with an undergraduate in Physics from the University ofMumbai with several years of experience studying economy, state, and society of India
using multidisciplinary perspectives from Geography, Anthropology, and Sociology.
Santosh Kumar Sahu is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Department ofHumanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras,Chennai, India. He is also a Fellow at the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy(ISEP), USA and the International Society for Development and Sustainability (ISDS),
Japan. In the past, he has served as an “Assistant Professor” at the Madras School ofEconomics, Chennai, India. He completed PhD at IIT Bombay and awarded with
“Excellence in PhD Research Award 2012-2013”. His research interests include
applied energy economics & policy, climate economics and applied microeconomics.
He is one of the recipients of Prof. Raghuram Rajan’s “Young Scholar Grant
Programme” to attend the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) summer
programme in Boston.