Excitement about India’s role as a rising power was again highlighted by Barack Obama’s state visit to New Delhi in January. Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi has also made a series of high-profile international visits since his election victory last year. But, as I originally blogged at Progress in Political Economy in February, the reality of work and life in the new India is radically different to the sparkle of Modi’s globe-trotting.

This contrast has been highlighted by many writers (including my colleague, Dr Elizabeth Hill – see her review of Rina Agarwala’s important new book on informal labor in India) and is something I take up in my new book, Informal Labour in Urban India: Three Cities, Three Journeys. The last quarter century of rapid economic growth in India has been underpinned by the mass employment of ‘informal labor’. The book uses case studies of economic development in three urban regions of India: Mumbai, Bengaluru (Bangalore) and the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi. I wrote this book after undertaking seven years’ research on India’s informal economy, including my doctoral research with the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. When I first considered undertaking a PhD, I was interested in the impacts of trade and investment between India and Australia on labor markets. I quickly discovered what, for me, was a far more interesting story about India’s transition from a relatively inward-looking, low-growth economy to a globally-integrated, high-growth economy and the impact on employment and livelihoods.

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