Business Today

The era when labour strikes could paralyse India’s cities feels long past. No Dutta Samant today wields absolute power over a metropolis. Trade unions still exist, of course, but they sit at the edges of our polity, a spent force in mainstream politics. Employment may not be a guaranteed fundamental right, yet unions were once seen as its protectors—its sword arm. That has changed. The reforms of 1991 are often treated as the turning point. Since then, labour relations have arguably never been better, or worse, depending on where you stand. Against this backdrop, the Union government has finally codified a set of far-reaching labour reforms. The four Labour Codes promise to reshape the compact between employers and employees. Even the gig economy, now a major source of livelihood for…

164% YTD RETURNS DELIVERED BY FORCE MOTORS, THE HIGHEST IN THE NIFTY 500 PACK ₹ 2.99 LAKH CRORE FUNDS RAISED FROM THE EQUITY PRIMARY MARKET TILL NOVEMBER; IT WAS ₹4.26 LAKH CRORE IN 2024 22.8X THE PRICE-TO-EARNINGS (P/E) RATIO FOR THE NIFTY50 INDEX IN NOVEMBER; TRAILING 12 MONTHS AVERAGE WAS 21.83 TEPID PERFORMANCE IN 2025, LARGE-CAPS LED WITH AN 11% RETURN. MID-CAPS RETURNED 5% WHILE SMALL-CAPS TURNED NEGATIVE STRETCHED VALUATION THE MARKET CAPITALISATION-TO-GDP RATIO WAS AT A RECORD HIGH, WAY ABOVE TRAILING FIVE-AND 10-YEAR AVERAGES DOMESTIC DOMINANCE FOREIGN INVESTORS HAVE STAYED AWAY BUT DOMESTIC MUTUAL FUNDS HAVE PROVIDED STRONG SUPPORT SECTORAL PERFORMANCE AUTO, METALS AND BANKING OUTPERFORMED BROADER MARKETS…

INSURANCE BOOST A MUCH-AWAITED reform, the Insurance Amendment Bill was finally introduced in Parliament in the Winter Session and passed, enabling 100% foreign direct investment in the sector, up from the earlier cap of 74%. The Sabka Bima Sabka Suraksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025, which overhauls the Insurance Act, 1938, the IRDA Act, 1999, and the LIC Act, 1956, is expected to boost capital flows and enable domestic players to expand their business as well as increase insurance penetration. It also enables the merger of an insurance company with a non-insurance firm, if the combined entity is in the insurance business. The space is set for more action now. RURAL EMPLOYMENT SHIFT IN A SWEEPING revamp of the flagship rural employment guarantee scheme, the government has introduced the…

He has been with Amazon since 1999, long enough to have watched the company evolve from an online bookstore into an everything store, a global technology conglomerate, and a major long-term investor in India. So, when Amazon recently announced a $35-billion investment in the country, it made sense to speak with Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President for Emerging Markets at Amazon, and one of the executives closest to that growth story. In a conversation with BT, Agarwal spoke about what the announcement signals. He also reflected on his years at Amazon and what he took away from working closely with founder Jeff Bezos as his technical advisor in 2007 — especially the focus on customer obsession, innovation and thinking big. That thinking, Agarwal confirms, is also reflected in the way…

THE EMPLOYEES’ COMPENSATION ACT, which kicks in when an employee is injured in an accident at the workplace, was enacted way back in 1923. It has remained in force even as India’s economy underwent a structural transformation—from a British colony attaining Independence in 1947, to experimenting with nationalisation in 1969, liberalisation in 1991 and, more recently, demonetisation, the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST), the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and now the emergence of the digital economy. To keep pace with that change, the government started working on modernising the archaic labour laws nearly a decade ago. Those efforts culminated in the four Labour Codes enacted in 2019 and 2020—the Code on Wages, 2019, Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020,…

SINCE THE IMPLE- MENTATION of the four Labour Codes on November 21, the government has been getting positive feedback on several of its aspects and is also working to clarify concerns, says Vandana Gurnani, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment. In an interview to BT, she explains that the ministry is now working on framing rules, implementing the Codes and rolling out the digital infrastructure. Edited excerpts: What is the feedback you have received on the Labour Codes over the last few weeks? The overall feedback has been extremely positive and constructive and also very forward looking. There has been extremely positive feedback from many of the workers and trade unions on several progressive moves which enhance workers’ welfare. This includes the universalisation of minimum wages, which were earlier available to…