Too many labour laws, but worker less protected

New Delhi (PTI): India has the least number of workers protected under law in the world even as the country's labour market has too much of regulations, Raghuram Rajan, Chief Economic Adviser in the Finance Ministry, said on Friday.A "India's labour market is over regulated. One of the feature of Indian labour market is that it gets strongest protection under law. But if you look worker's protection in India compare to world, we have the least number of workers protected," Rajan said addressing the media conclave. "We have too much of regulations, we have too many regulations at wrong time, sometimes little less regulations at the right time. We need to figure out what we need and pick out what we don't need," he added.A Labour reforms have been pending in India for long. Amendments to various labour laws have been awaiting Parliamentary approval. Rajan also emphasised careful implementation of the government's welfare programmes. "The government's subsidies have to be carefully targeted, and subsidy programmes have to be efficient, we as poor country, cannot afford poorly targeted or inefficient welfare programme," he said.