India, Nov. 24 -- The rollout of the four labour codes by the Union government is one of the most important market reforms in the history of the Indian economy. The net effect of the four new codes - they deal with wages, industrial relations, occupational safety and social security - is primarily threefold. It will simplify the existing framework, introduce a level of formalisation as far as terms of employment of workers are concerned, and offer greater flexibility to employers in dealing with employees' work duration and even employment itself. It is mostly the last part, manifested in increased threshold for hire-and-fire, strike action, etc, which is the centrepiece of opposition to and apprehension of the codes by trade unions in the country. In an ideal world, one could reasonably argue that the move is pro-capital and anti-labour. However, the Indian economy, as it stands today, is far from ideal. Despite being a labour-abundant economy, India has struggled not just to usher in a manufacturing revolution, but even its limited manufacturing gains have been mostly concentrated in sectors that are not labour-intensive. A lot of this failure has been attributed to India's labour market regime, which, businesses have argued, does not allow them to run enterprises that are nimble enough to deal with the volatilities or cyclical fluctuations of the market. There are studies that show that entrepreneurs have often tried to bypass these regulations by resorting to either replicating smaller factories or outsourcing work to informal workers, both of which have led to forgoing economies of scale in the Indian economy. The roll-out of the new labour codes should take away this constraint, real or perceived. Of course, the results are unlikely to be seen immediately. It is also a pity that the reform has happened at a time when the global economy is in a funk (to put it politely), which has generated headwinds for export markets. However, a period of crisis is often a period of reforms too. To be sure, some Indian states, which have had success with manufacturing, have already rolled out some of the key provisions in the labour codes. This strengthens their case. None of this, however, should be inferred as carte blanche for undermining labour rights. The best-case scenario would be entrepreneurs unleashing new dynamism from the reformed labour regime and workers reinventing their collective bargaining in a more robust economy....