India should consider changing its federal labor laws to make it easier for companies to do business and attract foreign investments, a top government adviser said.

The administration should revive efforts to merge more than 40 labor laws into four, a move that would simplify some of the world’s most rigid rules for hiring and firing workers, Arvind Panagariya, vice chairman of NITI Aayog, the government’s top policy planning body, said in an interview Tuesday. While some states have overhauled rules governing labor, there is a need to change federal laws as well to make it uniform across the country, he said.

“When we do it through states the impact is only in those states where law is changed,” said Panagariya, who resigned from the post and will serve his last day on Aug. 31. “We could also reform federal law.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s top adviser sees faster movement on reforming labor laws helping the government spur economic growth, attract investments and create more jobs. After Modi’s landslide win in 2014, expectations that he will ease labor laws increased. However, more than half way through his term he has shied away from making any major changes because of opposition.

The World Bank in its Doing Business 2017 report, which measures ease of doing business across nations, said rigid labor laws in India prompt companies to use less labor rather than protecting worker rights.

As carried in bq on 31/8/2017