India needs labour-intensive industrialisation: Pranab Bardhan

KOLKATA: Eminent economist Pranab Bardhan today said the country requires a massive labour-intensive industrialisation to create more opportunities.

"I am in favour of labour law reforms. The new government has already taken steps to change it but I think the country needs massive labour-intensive industrialisation," Bardhan, professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley said while speaking at the 13th Institute Lecture Series organised by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta here.

"Huge number of entrant, around 10-20 million labourers are entering each year and we have to get them jobs," he explained.

And in West Bengal, "lack of industrialisation" has led to labour militancy and getting jobs owing to industrial stagnation has become a big problem in the state, he rued.

"Labour stagnation has led to labour militancy and it is quite evident in West Bengal. It's ticking quite loudly here and everyday there is evidence of gathering criminalisation around us," he said.

On the Land Acquisition Act, he said though the Centre was heading towards the right direction, small corrections were still required.