Expanding formal employment: India's labour laws need desperate surgery

The best place to start labour reform is creating competition and reforming the governance of the ESIC

The Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is a monopoly for employer financed healthcare. This monopoly gives it a return on equity (ROE) of over 17,000 per cent, which is worrisome since the ROE for great companies with satisfied customers like Naukri.com, TCS, and Hindustan Lever are 105 per cent, 33 per cent, and 67 per cent respectively. The ESIC not only has millions of unsatisfied customers but offers poor value for money — the ESIC pays out less than 50 per cent of contributions as benefits while there is hardly an Indian commercial health insurance plan that has a claims