In June 2022, NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), a think-tank of the Indian Government Union Government, released a study report on India’s ‘Emerging Gig and Platform Economy.’ This led to extensive discussions at the national level on the potential for employment and social inclusion within the sector, the implications on labor, and efforts that can be made by stakeholders to design labor welfare and social security policies and skill the workforce to tap potential opportunities in the sector.
On 25 January, NITI Aayog organized a Policy Conclave and Consultation on 25 January at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Mohali, Punjab on the Gig and Platform Economy in India. It focused on three thematic sessions (i) Promoting Financial Inclusion for Gig and Platform Workers (ii) Promoting Digital, Financial & Entrepreneurial Skills for Women and Youth in the Platform Economy, and (iii) Designing Social Welfare Initiatives for Gig and Platform Workers.
Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP along with Mr. Ganesh Gopal, Lead - Entrepreneurship, ICA-AP attended the Conclave. Mr. Iyer participated as one of the speakers for the session on ‘Designing Social Welfare Initiatives for Gig and Platform Workers.’
Mr. Iyer emphasized the need for fair and decent work within the emerging and heterogenous gig ecosystem, which has a massive potential to contribute to employment and the country’s GDP. He acknowledged the benefits and flexibility that a freelancer or worker gets within the changing world of work and highlighted the need to address their issues of decent work, fair wages, provisioning social security, etc., through both policy interventions, and more importantly, through inward-looking solutions such as collectivization. He spoke about the emerging form of platform cooperatives, highlighting some of the use cases of worker-owned platform cooperatives in the world operating efficiently in the services sector, and noted that the NITI Aayog’s report had taken a limited view on the aspect of collectivization of workers within the gig economy.
Senior government officials, Mr. Kundan Kumar, IAS, Adviser and Joint Secretary, NITI Aayog, Mr. Manvesh Singh Sidhu, IAS, Secretary Labour Department, Punjab participated in the conclave. Some of the other key speakers at the consultation included stakeholders from the National Skill Development Council (NSDC), India’s largest private sector aggregation platforms including Swiggy (Bundl Technologies Private Limited), and trade union worker federation representative, Mr. Shaik Salauddin, General Secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT).
