SEZs return to tepid welcome; govt has no winning formula for their success

The sole advantage of the Indian SEZ Act still remains tax arbitrage, where most of the provisions are, in any case, on the sunset route

Without much debate, after a ten-year hiatus, Special Economic Zones (SEZ) are back again on the government agenda. The first cabinet meeting of the new central government has approved the introduction of the Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Parliament in the monsoon session. But without changes to state-level labour laws and faster rules for acquiring land, SEZs won't spur economic growth. 

With India’s massive employment challenge, the SEZs were the right policy but are now a decade late. As the policy was not thought through, it became a pariah in 2009 just when several other Asian economies embraced