No mere Relief : A
Game Changer
-----------------------------------------
Times of India ( 20 Dec ) carries following news
report :
“ Relief for Shop Owners and Eateries
from License Raj “
Maharashtra 1st to implement Amended Act
/ Move will generate more Employment
Highlights :
·
Shops and Establishments to stay open 365 days a year and can choose
opening and closing timings, if not restricted by the state in public interest
·
Bars, wine shops, pubs, discotheques will continue to have timing
restrictions
·
Welfare provisions in bill won’t apply to shops and establishments with
less than 10 employees ( approx. 12 lakh establishments )
·
Rules relaxed for kirana stores , small shops
·
Employees not to work more than 9 hours, will get paid leave and
overtime
·
Govt has already reformed Factories and Contract Labour Acts
·
State will consider public inconvenience in terms of traffic and noise
pollution caused by 24*7 operations
·
Women can work night shifts – 9:30 pm to 7 am – with their consent
·
Establishments will have to provide safety measures for their women
employees
·
35 lakh Shops and Establishments in Maharashtra
No registration required for which have fewer than 10 workers or employees working from home or which run an online business
Without doubt , this reform will
generate more jobs
But if the governments ( Central +
States ) , are bold enough to implement my earlier suggestions ( see following
blog ), they can generate :
50
MILLION NEW JOBS in 5 MONTHS ? [ 24
June 2016 ]
=======================================================
It
is reported that the Union Cabinet will soon approve a notification which will
allow establishments covered by the Shops and Establishment Act to remain open round the clock ( 24 hours )
Currently
, if they remain open for 10 / 12 hours , they end up inviting visits by Inspectors of Establishment Department and the Labour Department
, to collect their weekly " haftas
"
With
official sanction of 24 hours , that would go !
And 24 working
hours will enable these shopkeepers to compete with those Foreign Companies bringing in 100 % FDI in
retail but working for 8 hours / day
!
And
as soon as one grocery store starts working longer hours ( even 12 hours ) ,
most of the neighbourhood stores will follow suit !
For
our 50 million MSMEs to, not only take
on these Foreign Giants but to defeat them in competition , is only possible
when we stop playing the RETAIL GAME by
the Rules of those Foreign Countries , and make them clue-less with our own NEW and OUT-OF-BOX rules !
Possibly
half of these may be covered by Factory Act
and the remaining half by the Shop and
Establishment Act
Between
them , they employ 90 % of India's work force of around 500 million
Average of approx 9 persons per MSME
Now
, even if only 5 million ( out of 25
million shops ) just add ONE more employee
to work longer hours , that would get jobs to 5
million youth !
That
is quite a lot ! And without any additional Capital Investment !
Compare
this advantage with Capital required to create ONE
new job in Start Ups
As
per Government , Rs 10,000 cr of " Fund of Funds for Start Ups " ,
will catalyse an Equity Investment of Rs 60,000 cr , which , in turn will
enable raising of Debt of Rs 120,000 cr - totaling Rs 180,000 cr of capital
As per Government , that will generate 18,00,000 jobs
( in 5 years )
That
is requirement of Rs 10 LAKH for
each new job created in a Start Up !
While
welcoming this initiative , I urge the Union Government to take following steps
simultaneously , in order to generate , not just 5 million but 50 MILLION new jobs in the MSME sector ( and
without additional funds ! ) :
#
Abolish all visits by
Inspectors ( Labour + Shop & Establishment
Departments )
#
Allow MSMEs to engage
Apprentices under the recently revised Skills
Development
Regulations
/ Apprentice Act
#
For them , remove
the upper limit ( of Apprentices ) which is maximum of 10 % of
employee
strength
#
Let them engage Apprentices up to 100 % of their existing employees
#
Let them keep these trainees for 3 years under " Retail Establishment Trainee
Scheme "
#
Let the stipend
be 100 % ( instead of currently prescribed 60-70-80 % ) of semi
Skilled Minimum wages
( Minimum Semi Skilled Wages are approx Rs 6,000 per month - so Shopkeeper need
to pay Rs 6000 pm )
#
Concerned State Governments to subsidize 50 % of this stipend (so,
Shopkeeper's
burden to be Rs 3,000 pm )
[ Stipend Subsidy does not violate WTO
! ]
#
To ensure fool-proof compliance
with the number of Trainees engaged and Stipends
paid , this Scheme
( 24 hr open + 100 % trainees + 100 % Stipend + 50 % Subsidy + 3 year training
program + No inspectors ),
will apply ONLY to those Shops which
implement , mobile app MAD outlined in my
following blog :
From
BAD to MAD [ 01 June 2016 ]
21 Dec 2017
www.hemenparekh.in
/ blogs
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