Balwant Singh Mehta – författare

This book examines how the progress of digital technology is transforming the world of work, skill demand, labour market institutions, and regulations in countries like India. It studies the challenges, opportunities, and current and future contributions of digital technologies. The volume poses salient questions regarding the ICT sector, I4.0 technologies, the gig economy, remote work, and the regulatory environment, and interrogates the policy and regulatory measures needed to promote more inclusive and decent work in the future.

Part of the Towards Sustainable Futures series, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of economics, sustainable development, sociology of work, labour economics, Indian economy, public policy, and human resource management. It will also be extremely useful to policymakers, government organisations, civil society organisations, and those in the corporate sector.

This book examines how the progress of digital technology is transforming the world of work, skill demand, labour market institutions, and regulations in countries like India. It studies the challenges, opportunities, and current and future contributions of digital technologies. The volume poses salient questions regarding the ICT sector, I4.0 technologies, the gig economy, remote work, and the regulatory environment, and interrogates the policy and regulatory measures needed to promote more inclusive and decent work in the future.

Part of the Towards Sustainable Futures series, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of economics, sustainable development, sociology of work, labour economics, Indian economy, public policy, and human resource management. It will also be extremely useful to policymakers, government organisations, civil society organisations, and those in the corporate sector.

This book addresses women’s changing role in and contributions to the Indian labour market. It explores how feminist theories and frameworks have changed over time and gradually been supplanted by new ones. The book explores the structural shift in women’s employment from farm to non-farm jobs in services and industries, both theoretically and empirically. Further, it examines the steady rise of women in high skilled or ‘new economy’ sectors like information and communication technology, electronics and telecom; and in low skilled work such as domestic work, particularly in urban areas. It also scrutinizes how emerging sectors of the economy are experimenting with new forms of employment by changing the temporal (part-time work, flexible hours), spatial (location of work) and contractual (temporary contracts) dimensions. Beyond analysing the above-mentioned aspects, the book discusses perennial challenges such as patriarchy, socio-cultural norms and gender-based labour market inequalities across occupations as a ‘glass ceiling’ or ‘sticky floor’.

One of the book’s most important contributions is inclusion of detailed labour market statistics for women, with long-term trends and patterns, as well as comparisons with other countries and regions. In closing, the book highlights women’s participation in economic and non-economic activities and related quantification issues, i.e. the invisibility of women’s work, which remains a highly contentious aspect. Given its content, the book offers a valuable asset for a broad readership including academics, NGOs, and policymakers. 

“The subject of low work participation rates for women has been of concern to economists, gender specialists and policy makers for decades. This book makes an important contribution in understanding the role of women in development and identifies some new policy directions that could be initiated to facilitate greater employment of women.”

-          Rohini Nayyar, Former Principal Adviser, Yojana Aayog, Government of India 

“This book is timely and extremely relevant to the academic and policy debates in India. Given the puzzle of low and declining female labour force participation, it is critical to focus on where women work, beyond a supply-side perspective. In addition, efforts are needed to better measure women’s work, which is typically underreported. In both these dimensions, this book makes an important contribution, which will be valuable for both academics and policymakers.”

-          Sher Verick, Employment Policy and Analysis Programme (EPAP) of the International Training Centre (ITC), International Labour Organization 

“This book critically examines both theoretically and empirically the dynamics of changes in women’s participation in and contribution to the fast-transforming Indian labour market. The aspects covered include the essential issue of how the new forms of employment are impacting temporal, spatial and contractual dimensions. An excellent and compulsory read for academicians and policy-makers involved in gender as well as labour economics.”

-          Ritu Dewan, Former President, Indian Association for Women''s Studies; Former Director & Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Mumbai 

“The book is a required addition to the exiting literature on women’s work and employment for its comprehensive and distinctive approach. It is a unique blend of macro and micro level perspectives and issues capturing statistics.”

This book delves into the intricate challenges faced by Indian youth as they enter the labour market. It explores vital aspects of youth''s journey from school to the labour market, offering insights into the current status and strategies for harnessing the demographic dividend, bridging the gap between labour market demand and supply, addressing the issue of skill mismatch, and tackling the challenge of inactive or idle youth in India. The book draws from analysing a diverse range of data sources, including statistics from organizations like the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI); as well as data from surveys such as Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and Employment-Unemployment Survey (EUS), conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India; and educational surveys such as Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), School Education Quality Index (SEQI) and NSSO''s surveys on Household Social Consumption: Education. These data cover a period spanning of over two decades, from 2000 to 2023. The book is a valuable resource for policymakers, researchers, and anyone interested in understanding the complex challenges and opportunities associated with the transition of Indian youth from school to decent employment. This transition is closely linked to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4 and 8; and with India being home to the world’s largest youth population, the book showcases aspects of a critical area of focus for organizations and entities working towards these global objectives.