Top Research Papers on Gig Economy in India

While post-Fordism and neo-liberalism changed the way labour was viewed, technology and wide spread digitization has built upon the same principles, giving way to a new form of work – the Gig Economy. Over the last decade, ‘on-demand’ work guided by app-based platforms such as Uber, Ola, Urban Company, Zomato, etc. have become fairly common in urban India. These platforms have built upon the existing large informal economy fuelled by growing digitization and affordability of gadgets such as smartphones. Gig economy thrives upon the idea of ‘flexibility’, allowing people to work as ‘independent...

This chapter of the book seeks to review the different components of the gig economy along with the advantages and disadvantages and how gig can contribute towards a localised and self-reliant Indian economy.

:- The gig economy is a rapidly evolving sector that is transforming the labour market in India. This paper examines the growth of the gig economy in India, its opportunities and challenges, and the policy implications for the Indian economy. Using data from multiple sources, including government reports, academic studies, and industry surveys, we analyze the size, scope, and dynamics of the gig economy in India, its impact on the labour market, and the policy challenges and opportunities presented by the sector.

This article raises an issue of the rising popularity of gig economy in India. A market that is based on a fixed-term contract or that is paid per project by a company, third party, or online marketplace is referred to as the "gig economy". By employing a case study approach, this article highlights the impact of gig economy in India. The gig economy's impact at work is widespread and felt across industries. It has completely transformed how people are engaged at work and has resulted in a fundamental shift in the way our economy operates. While the gig economy offers enormous benefits to work...

The prototypical gig worker—a contract driver for a ridesharing company—reports self-employment earnings in the Taxi and Limousine Services industry. Growth in the number of self-employed drivers in this industry has dramatically outpaced the growth in solo self-employment in any other industry. We use rich administrative tax data to explore who these workers are, how that has changed over time and how the new drivers combine self-employment with wage and salary work. Uber’s entrance to a local labor market leads to significant growth in the number of drivers over the following years. Other th...

To investigate the impact of ride-hailing apps in the Indian market, and the challenges and opportunities it has brought in, a learnings from an ethnographic study of Uber drivers in India are offered.

The process of digitalization has increased rapidly around the world and this process has transformed societies and brought a new economic revolution. The use of technology has brought a new change in India as well. A paradigm shift in business models, service provisions, and working arrangements has taken place. Now flexible types of jobs are available to freelancers and part-time workers. The gig economy is a relatively new and emerging sector with immense potential for growth and employment generation. This study highlights the growth of the gig economy in India from 2011-12 to 2019-20.The ...

The gig economy is transforming the work culture, of organizations across the globe. Technological innovation has brought significant changes to work, organization, and employment relationships with positive and negative impacts. Labor laws, freedom of association, and collective bargaining have long sought to balance the unequal relationship between employers and individual workers and enable workers to act collectively to improve their employment and working conditions. For gig workers specifically, many platforms classify them as independent contractors or partners in place of employees and...

The gig economy includes a broad spectrum of occupations, including independent graphic designers, content producers, and IT specialists, as well as ride-hailing firms like Uber and Ola.

This research conducted a systematic literature review to investigate Employee Engagement in the context of the Gig Economy. Key factors, such as work flexibility, organizational support, and work-life balance, were identified as important determinants in influencing employee engagement levels. The research results show that employee engagement contributes to increasing work efficiency, work quality, job satisfaction, and stress management in gig workers. In addition, involvement in employee communities and increasing professional networks are crucial aspects in expanding impact and career opp...

The present research was conducted to understand how the contributions made by contract employees are valued across the IT sector and to know the favorability of existing employment practices.

Fixed-term, contract-based employment is continuously spreading in the world. It has been given many names; in this paper it is termed the gig economy in the most comprehensive sense. We are going to present the basic features of the gig economy with special attention to short-term, incentive contracts affecting the relationship between employer and worker. In the gig economy employers use performance related wage to incentivise workers to work with the required intensity. By that incentive, employers also source out their risk to their workers whose wages and all their employment becomes unce...

It is argued that certain algorithms can facilitate new relationships of domination by sustaining a socio-technical system in which the owners and managers of a company dominate workers.

Under the present domestic and globally competitive market, Gig Economy has emerged as anew paradigm in the world labour market. It has significant implications across various spheres due to the scalability, innovation and agility that it offers. This study explores the growth and scope of Gig Economy in India and focuses on freelancers who mostly provide services in virtual work set-up. The study is based on primary and secondary data. The primary data is collected by canvassing a questionnaire among 100 respondents across genders and age groups. This study has analysed the future growth of t...

ABSTRACT Employment practices in the gig economy have routinely been defended through the language of individual freedom. Indeed, this particular model of on-demand employment is often presented as removing constraints on the freedom to choose when, where and how to sell one’s labour, enabling individuals to exercise greater self-authorship over their working lives. In this article, however, I show how the particular conception of freedom that underpins this pro-gig work discourse functions to obscure significant threats to the liberty of gig workers. An alternative perspective, inspired by th...

Technological advances such as smartphones, mobile applications, and online platforms have enabled a new form of economy, known as a gig economy, at a large scale, in which there is a freemarket system allowing organizations (job providers) to hire independent contractors (job seeker). Unlike traditional employer and employee relationships, the gig economy creates opportunities for independent workers to seek short-term contract jobs and temporary positions. This article presents a systematic review of the literature associated with a bibliometric analysis of the global perspective of the gig ...

This research paper has aimed to understand the concept of Gig Economy and the role of women workers in it. It has also studied the challenges and future scope of Gig economy in India. This is a conceptual paper which has reviewed various research papers as well as articles. It has been reported by various research studies that the greater participation of women workers in gig works is due to the flexibility in managing their domestic and work life together and social insecurity has been considered as one of the major challenges which can be removed through implementation of proper legislation...

PurposeThe alternative arrangements to traditional employment have become a promising area in the gig economy with the technological advancements dominating every work. The purpose of this paper is to explore the barriers to the entry of gig workers in gig platforms pertaining to the food delivery sector. It proposes a framework using interpretive structural modelling (ISM) for which systematic literature review is done to extract the variables. This analysis helps to examine the relationship between the entry barriers to gig platforms. The study further proposes strategies to reduce the entry...

The gig economy, which is characterised by flexible and transitory labour arrangements, has acquired considerable traction recently and is revolutionising conventional employment structures. The ramifications of Indias gig economy on HRM practices and its effects on big industries are examined in this research paper. Technology improvements, shifting work choices, and the emergence of digital platforms, among other things, have all contributed to the significant growth of the gig economy in India. The key implications of the gig economy on HRM practices in India are talent acquisition and rec...

The paper examines existing policy initiatives and identifies gaps in addressing ethical challenges, particularly in the realm of algorithmic systems and the need for comprehensive measures to protect the rights of gig workers’ rights thus focusing on their welfare.

The number of people holding non-traditional jobs (independent contractors, temporary workers, “gig” workers) has grown steadily as technology increasingly enables short-term labor contracting and fixed employment costs continue to rise. For many firms that need less than a full-time person for short-term work and for many workers who value flexibility this has created a great deal of surplus. During slack economic periods, non-traditional work also serves as an alternative safety net. Non-traditional jobs will continue to become more common, though policy changes could slow or accelerate the ...

Three distinct “selling points” of gig economy are explored, namely: the possibility to generate (not always) steady income, the flexibility it offers to its users, and its consequences on workers’ social and emotional state, putting into question their benefits for workers, for the profit of platforms and businesses.

The 'gig economy' is a relatively recent term coined to describe a range of working arrangements that have previously been denoted as precarious, flexible and contingent. These may include casual workers, temporary agency workers, those on zero-hours contracts and dependent contractors. This books seeks to get behind the contemporary buzz surrounding the term and provide some theoretical and empirical analysis of the gig work phenomenon. The book seeks to assess more critically some of the rhetorical claims made about gig work and to provide a balanced appraisal of the ramifications for indivi...

This work analyzes a unique survey data set from a national sample of 1512 U.S. adults to compare four stages of gig economy participation and implies that the gig economy increases labor market stratification and that digital participation inequalities compound labor inequalities.

The gig economy can serve up to 90 million jobs in the non-farm sectors in India with a potential to add 1.25% to the GDP over the "long term".

The gig economy can serve up to 90 million jobs in the non-farm sectors in India with a potential to add 1.25% to the GDP over the "long term".

This book draws together literature on globalization and small and medium enterprise development and internationalization from disparate sources into a cohesive body of work, which traces the evolution of entrepreneurship and the understanding of the topic.

Tax system in this modern day is inherently complex and dynamic in nature coupled with the fact that it is being influenced by a variety of factor. The main objective of this study is to evaluate tax compliance in the gig economy: the need for transparency and accountability. Using the Saunders’ Research Onion layers, the study employed the use of quantitative data and qualitative data. Structured questionnaire and interview were used as data instrument. Data collated werecoded and then subjected to analysis.Theresultof the findingsshows that 66.6 % of the respondentsstronglyagreedto tax compl...

This article explores the writing and reading requirements of the literacy practices, events, and texts characteristic of work mediated by the online labor platforms of the gig economy, such as Airtasker and Freelancer, which bring together people needing a job done with those willing to do it. These emerging platform-based discourse communities and their associated literacies are a new domain of social activity. Based on an examination of seven gig economy platforms, the present article examines the core literacy event in the gig economy, the posting and bidding for tasks, together with the t...

ABSTRACT Recent years have seen notions of the “gig economy” become widespread. Hitherto most analyses of this phenomenon have centered on first defining the phenomenon, then tracing its extent and effects before considering the policy implications. However, few previous accounts have concerned themselves with the origins of the word “gig,” and none have focused on those workers whose lives revolve around gigs―musicians. This article seeks to address this lacuna and argues that a study of musicians’ working lives has much to teach those interested in the development and implications of the gig...

: The outbreak of COVID-19 has unleashed opportunities in the gig economy, especially for the young generation. Due to pandemic lockdowns, the demand for supplies and delivery services had soared, and many took the opportunity to earn a good income that helped them survive the challenging period. Therefore, this study aims to identify the motivational factors that drive people to join the gig economy. The qualitative method was utilised to determine the “push” and “pull” factors that influenced gig work. The data was collected from 235 respondents via Google Forms. The findings indicated that ...

The emergence of the gig economy in India, backed by technological advancements and changing societal norms, has significantly altered the landscape of labour markets. This paper examines the impact of the gig economy on traditional labour laws in Maharashtra, a state experiencing a rapid rise in gig work. It explores the challenges posed by this shift, evaluates the gap between existing labour laws and the realities of gig work, and proposes reforms aimed at protecting gig workers while fostering economic growth.

Modern economy has benefited from gig economy idea, where, instead of hiring permanent employees, a company assigns each task to the person who is the most efficient in performing this task. This way, each task is performed in the best possible way -by a person who is the most suited for this job. Why not extend this idea to education? Every student deserves the best possible teacher in every topic. So why not have a teacher who is the best in town in explaining quadratic equations teach quadratic equations to all the students from the town? In this paper, we describe this proposal and its log...

Gig jobs have become a structural aspect of contemporary economic landscape, creating unique social and technological challenges. How can policies and design solutions better protect gig workers and mitigate the risks participants face?

Developing swiftly in Indian Labour marketplace and higher recognize its structure, operating preparations and advise a coverage alternate to any organizations that the authorities need to act as a facilitator and be a part of Industry and Academia via way of means of permitting numerous new platform in understanding gig economy.

This research is based on how, over the course of the last couple of decades, with the spread of technology and the internet, increased urbanization, and most recently, the Covid-19 epidemic, the discussion on "the future of work" has taken place. Since non-traditional work modes are the "future of work," we need to think about establishing legislative frameworks on this topic on a global scale. In this study work, certain important definitional and conceptual concerns emerging under the Labour Codes in relation to Work from Home are explored. These topics have been presented by gaining an und...

This article discusses protest efforts undertaken by platform-based food delivery workers during the first wave of the pandemic. Following the lockdown, food delivery platforms were categorized as ‘essential’ to ensure that their operations continued. Several changes were made during this time to hiring practices, platforms diversified into providing grocery services and incorporating safety protocols to enhance customer ‘confidence’ in their services. The article starts by showing how the pandemic helped to strengthen the platform’s position in the market on the backs of delivery partners’ wh...

The domestic work sector in India has been absorbing an overwhelming proportion of workers who migrate from rural and semi-urban spaces to cities for employment. The supply of workers is driven by multiple unregulated intermediaries, which expose them to multiple modes of exploitation before and after the point of placement. We compare digital platforms, which have recently entered the sector as intermediaries, to traditional placement agencies as pathways to livelihood opportunities in the domestic work sector. We shed light on the placement routes for domestic workers in the platform economy...

This paper analyzed workers’ posts about privacy and surveillance from 12 Reddit forums representing four main types of work, and presented a guiding set of questions that workers, designers, and researchers can use to assess the privacy implications of current and future gig work platforms.

This paper aims to research the main characteristics and trends of the freelancer’s market in temporary and occasional jobs in the Digital economy. The research was conducted by analyzing the content of reports of companies that hire freelancers, consulting companies and blogs of experts. The Digital economy is one of the results of the widespread application of information and communication technologies (ICT) that have influenced the transformation of the business model. Widespread application of ICT increased the flexibility of the work environment from the perspective of the place and time ...

The discourse and policy of ‘entrepreneurial development’ has been critical to the spread of platform-based gig work in India. Digital platforms introducing gig work for location-based services, are perceived as vital in providing opportunities for dignified work marking a break from informality and are accompanied by the state’s push towards cultivating neoliberal subjectivities of ‘self-reliance’. We examine how a discourse of entrepreneurial development and the ‘enterprising self’ underpins the structural conditions of location-based gig work, through an examination of conditions of work in...

"Increasingly, employees are being falsely treated as ‘self-employed’. This phenomenon – the ‘gig economy’ – is seen as the inevitable shape of things to come. In this book, Colin Crouch takes a step back and questions this logic. He shows how the idea of an employee – a stable status that involves a bundle of rights – has maintained a curious persistence. Examining the ways companies are attacking these rights, from proffering temporary work to involuntary part-time work to ‘gigging’, he reveals the paradoxes of the situation and argues that it should not and cannot continue. He goes on to pr...

Abstract The rapid ascent of digital platforms and the gig economy has prompted concerns about the gender pay gap. The results show that in the gig economy, gender continues to be a crucial determinant of workers’ earnings, with women earning 85% of what men earn on a monthly basis. Nevertheless, in comparison to the traditional waged employment during the same period, the gender pay gap in the gig economy has narrowed. While some gig jobs (e.g., ride-hailing services, delivery services, online education) exhibit certain occupational segregation, women in gig economy work are no longer concent...

The article analyzes the factors influencing the dynamics of the gig economy and states the need for targeted measures to adapt the economy to the new model, including retraining or creating alternative employment opportunities for “traditional” workers giving up jobs in favor of gig-employed ones.

Five main clusters emerged from the study and the main themes deal with sharing, gig, and platform economy, digitalization, teleworking, career participation and platforms; finally, gig workers are key for developing strategies, policies, and actions to achieve a social welfare through entrepreneurship in the platform ecosystem.

The emergence of gig work (e.g., freelancing, rideshare driving, food and parcel delivery, travel nursing, virtual assistantship) and the gig economy challenges organizational researchers to consider how they should revise traditional theories of work behavior to consider the dynamics of new work arrangements. As a prime example that is central to this review, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is a form of job performance whereby motives stem from the quality of work relationships with direct supervisors, coworkers, and other organizational agents. However, gig workers experience very ...

It is shown that algorithmic control is central to the operation of online labour platforms and can result in low pay, social isolation, working unsocial and irregular hours, overwork, sleep deprivation and exhaustion.

Unlike traditional firm production, gig economy workers provide their own physical capital. As a consequence, the low‐income households for whom gig economy opportunities are most valuable often borrow to participate. In the context of ride‐share, difference‐in‐difference analysis reveals increased vehicle purchases, borrowing, utilization, and employment around entry, but financially constrained individuals cannot participate. To assess the equilibrium importance of financing, I build and estimate a structural model of the gig economy. Access to finance proves critical for the gig economy's g...

Online technology has developed to an extent where traditional labor markets have transformed, creating opportunities for people and businesses to participate in the global marketplace by employing contract labor. Application-based transportation including ridesharing apps, food and commodity delivery platform apps, and other consumer-facing services brought in the concepts of flexible work reshaping gig work into the mainstream creating millions of jobs in the areas of operation. Even though the gig economy provides flexibility in work, the real situation of the gig workforce seems very compl...

Over the past decades, there has been a steady increase in the number of people involved in ‘flexible’ labour, more commonly known as ‘gig’ work. This has stimulated discussions over its various characteristics, including the lifestyle, mental health, fair treatment and overall well-being of gig workers. This article seeks to understand how the plight of gig workers can be reduced by effective regulation. For this, the authors identify seven characteristic features of the gig economy that harm the workers’ well-being. Then, the authors explain mechanisms in which the plight of these workers re...