| Type | Research presentation (policy review seminar) |
| Event | Globalisation and Informalisation: Consequences for Skill, Gender and Security |
| Organized by | GIDR at India International Centre (IDPAD project) |
| Location | New Delhi, India |
| Date | October 17, 2005 |
| Slides | Download the presentation (PDF) |
A research presentation at the Policy Review Seminar on Globalisation and Informalisation, India International Centre, New Delhi (October 17, 2005).
In short: How three forces of globalisation — trade, foreign investment, and technology — affected India’s most vulnerable manufacturing workers (women, contract, and unskilled), with results that don’t fit a simple “globalisation good or bad” story.
About the lecture
This presentation analysed how trade, foreign investment, and technology reshaped employment for three vulnerable groups in India’s organized manufacturing — women (relative to men), contract workers (relative to regular), and unskilled workers (relative to skilled). The central message is that these forces pull in different directions for different groups, so the effects of globalisation on jobs are genuinely mixed rather than uniformly positive or negative.
What the lecture covered
- Trade was the most worker-friendly force — it tended to improve employment access for women and unskilled workers, while staying roughly neutral between contract and regular workers.
- Foreign investment was double-edged — its effect was negative for contract and unskilled workers, as foreign firms leaned toward regular, skilled staff.
- Technology bore hardest on the vulnerable — automation and imported technology tended to disadvantage women and unskilled workers, while favouring contract workers.
- Concentration matters — women’s employment clustered in a few industries, contract work was heavy in particular sectors, and unskilled workers, though still the majority, saw their share gradually erode.
Get the slides
The full presentation is available as a PDF:
⇩ Download the presentation (PDF)
Related research on this site
This presentation led to the author’s published work:
- Who Gets Ahead? How Trade, FDI and Technology Reshaped India’s Manufacturing Jobs — the related journal article (Pradhan, Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 2006).