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Bikky Khosla | 29 Dec, 2015
The winter session of Parliament ended last week, but the question will continue to haunt us: when will the nation get rid of obstructionist politics? Ever since the NDA came to power, the opposition-controlled Rajya Sabha has remained unacceptably unproductive, resulting in slower pace of reform than expected. The Goods and Services Tax bill was not taken up for discussion; a new bankruptcy law was discussed, but its future still seems unsure. Overall, the Upper House passed only nine bills out of which seven were not even discussed. Partisan politics again got in the way of pushing reforms.

It has been reported that the Centre will send the Insolvency and Bankruptcy bill â which seeks to ensure insolvency resolution of corporates in a time bound manner and without much red tape â to a joint house panel, as demanded by some Opposition parties. It is expected that the move will help in fast passage of the bill, but it is difficult to forget that the Centre took the same route in case of the Land Acquisition bill, achieving little success. However, the bankruptcy bill is relatively less sensitive politically, considering which I expect faster passage of the bill. As per World Bank's Doing Business Report, resolving insolvency in India takes 4.3 years on average. The proposed legislation seeks to bring the required time down to 180 days.

Meanwhile, the Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Bill 2015, one of the few bills successfully passed during the Winter session, raised some concern for the industry, particularly the micro, small and medium enterprises. The amended act, which is slated to come into force retrospectively on April 1, 2014, provides for increasing the monthly bonus calculation ceiling to Rs 7,000 per month from the existing Rs 3,500. This means employees who have already received bonus have to be paid arrears of bonus. This, according to many, will not only result in higher costs but in administrative difficulties and harassment from the labour inspectors. The fear seems quite rational.

In another development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week said that the Centre would unveil details about 'Start up India, Stand up India' on January 16. He added that the project would bring about a big opportunity for the youth of the country. All this sounds encouraging. We lack a proper start-up ecosystem, which puts our wannabe entrepreneurs on the back foot. We need to change this situation. There is no dearth of government schemes aimed at entrepreneurship promotion, but what seems to be always lacking is any real effort to get down to the nitty-gritty. Only time will tell how far this new scheme will make a difference.

I invite your opinions. Best wishes for a splendid New Year.