Thiyagarajakumar Ramaswamy's Leadership Stage Live/Support:- Socio-Economic Impact of Labour Law and Special Economic Zones In India Finnish Company Nokia Corporation set up its largest mobile phone assembling plant in Sri Perumbudur Taluk of Kancheepuram District in Tamil Nadu in 2005. Atrracted by the tax concessions offered under SEZ Act 2005, resource subsidies and an army of cheap labour, Nokia found it profitable to assemble phones in India and sell them globally. In just 5 years the plant produced 500 million phones. It hired over 12,000 workers with majority being young women. After profiting for 8 years, the company now faces charges of avoiding taxes to the Indian Government in thousands of crores. Imminent closure of the factory and loss of employment looms large for thousands of workers. The film documents the voices of workers that have remained largely muted in the din of tax battle between the corporation and the State. They share there experiences of working in Nokia; the happy times of being 'connected'; of building dreams of becoming 'middle class'; their fears, anxiety and anger of being 'dis-connected' suddenly by the company they helped 'profit' with their hard work; and their resolve to fight for their employment. - Nokia's Chennai plant- produces more than 300,000 handsets a day and employs 11,364 people, of whom 19 percent are contract workers and 26 percent trainees - Permanent employees at Nokia make 6,000 rupees ($99.99) to 11,666 rupees ($194.24) a month compared with a minimum wage for India calculated at 7,967 rupees($132.65) a month by the Asia Floor Wage campaign, according to the report - Contract workers received a lower wage of 4,400 rupees($73.26) monthly, according to the report. Chennai workers said they needed at least 9,000 rupees ($149.85) monthly to rent a room and start a family, it said. + Nokia-Microsoft US$ 7.2 billion deal. + The I-T department has said that hat Nokia India and Nokia Corporation owe it Rs 21,153 crore as total tax liability (existing and anticipated), including penalty during a seven-year period from 2006-2013. + The Tamil Nadu sales tax commissioner has slapped a Rs 2,400-crore demand notice on the Finnish handset maker, alleging that phones manufactured in the company's SEZ facility in Chennai were not exported but were instead sold in India. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SEZs have been touted to be magic pills for nations to kick-start exports, develop infrastructure, and increase employment by adhering to the principles of free markets and minimum distortions caused by effective administration and low or no taxes. Owing to the success of China and other countries, India took up the development SEZs with much enthusiasm, but the outcome has not entirely been as desired. On the one hand, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry reports impressive figures to show how SEZs have "worked", but on the other hand, there are cases such as that of Chennai, Tamilnadu where 1000's of Nokia employees protesting against the establishment of a mobile-phone manufacturing hub SEZ by an Finland-based manufacturer. In an attempt to understand India's experience with SEZs, this article will first look into the Finland based manufacturer's motivations of setting up SEZs. It will then assess the framework the SEZ Act of 2005, and finally, move on to scrutinise the social and economic impact of this policy. This presentation has dealt briefly into a few contentious issues that arise with the establishment of SEZs in India. With significant employment not being generated, and with no real rise in national exports has taken place, the rationale of this establishment is called into question. The issue remains volatile, as was seen in the case of nokia chennai sez plant, where the conflict continued to simmer after the scrapped its plans to establish the SEZ there. However, governments are unlikely to give up on establishing SEZs, and it is imperative that laws are amended in order to make trade and investment flourish without disempowering the people who are displaced or the workforce in SEZs. The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 need to be looked into, and a transparent rehabilitation law needs to be put in place. In fact, the people need to be made stakeholders in the progress of the nation. Failure to do so may further prove former Indian Prime Minister VP Singh correct in his assessment of the SEZ policy of India, when he said, "the current promotion of SEZs is unjust", and that it acts as a "trigger for massive social unrest, which may even take the form of armed struggle."

• published: 05 May 2014
• views: 23