Understanding the Indian Economy from the Post-Reforms of 1991, Volume II by Shrawan Kumar Singh

Author:Shrawan Kumar Singh [Shrawan Kumar Singh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Business Expert Press
Published: 2020-07-12T16:00:00+00:00

A) Cost savings

B) Easy ramp-up

C) Scale-downs based on peaks and troughs in business

D) Quick ability to tap specialized skills

Advantages aside, the gig economy poses challenges too. But companies do need to reorient processes to be ready for the gig world. There is a gray underside, however, to the gig economy as well. Some critics have likened it to a Dickensian world in which workers are at the mercy of the online platforms they are members of. Others have spoken about digital serfs who have few rights. The reported reasons why Uber and Ola taxi drivers took their cars off the road raise some deeper questions about the role of labor in the gig economy, especially at a time when many thinkers believe that an economy of freelancers is one solution to the global jobs challenge.

But there are important economic issues. India needs to have these debates—especially at a time when there is a growing belief that micro entrepreneurship rather than employment in modern enterprises is being projected as a solution to the Indian jobs challenge.4 To enable this ecosystem to be fair and sustainable, however, academia, government, and enlightened employers will need to come together to set standards, develop workforce retraining programs, create collaborative learning systems, and ensure no undue exploitation. There exists a trust deficit in the gig economy.

In fine, unemployment in India is a complex problem with numerous overlapping and intertwined causes. There is no denying that India has an acute job crisis. The “jobless growth” has slipped into “job-loss growth,” which, together with rural indebtedness and urban chaos, has made the growing number of aspirational youths restless.5 As per information available on the official website of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), there were nearly 31 million unemployed Indians looking for jobs as of 2017,6 which speaks to something deeply disconcerting about the dismal pace of job creation. The problem of jobs entails wages and quality of employment. Underemployment is a major aspect of the problem. This issue is related to skills, not just degrees. Times have changed and today’s young people won’t be content making a precarious living. It is important to strengthen social security for informal workers while increasing flexibility for employers. The economic environment needs to be a lot friendlier.

India is witnessing a rise in the need for supplemental income due to high unemployment amongst the urban youth, increasing cost of living, growing aspirations of students and changing mindsets of women engaged in homemaking. This is exhibited by the existence and growth of gig platforms such as Frapp, Internshala, and Awign (Monga 2020). Therefore, one must recognize that perceptions about earnings and jobs are changing fast in the wake of rapid technological advances. The true meaning of being a worker is shifting toward having stable, productive, and remunerative employment. This aspect must be captured both at the stage of collection of labor data and while interpreting and analyzing the same for evidence-driven policymaking (Subramanian 2019). Investing in employment data will enable more appropriate policy, fiscal decisions, and monetary policy.

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