If regulatory diktats nudge consumers to be a little more patient — or force labour to be a little less desperate — the business model breaks down before it turns profitable.
Companies are now retooling everything from products and pricing to logistics and content to reach the vast, price-conscious yet aspirational consumer in India’s smaller towns.
The report released at Charcha 2025, an annual gathering of India’s social development sector, found that women remain largely concentrated in low-value and routine roles.
The liability framework for gig businesses could be aligned with the 'actual knowledge’ standard under section 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000.
Karnataka will be 2nd state after Rajasthan to have legislation for welfare of gig workers. Experts & activists welcome key provisions, including fair terms of contract, mentioned in draft.
Non-profit's survey of 5,000-plus gig workers engaged with 20-plus platforms finds that these are full-time jobs. Report points to issues of health, income security & lack of regulation.
Instead of burdening them with enforcement of State policy, we should be leveraging these intermediaries for their inherent market efficiencies. Norway & China show how.
India's experience with Coal Mines Provident Fund and Seamen's Provident Fund should lead us to ask if the idea of a centralised welfare fund is itself problematic, and prone to misuse.
Young delivery executives brave more than just heatwaves and traffic. They also deal with dismissive family members, indifferent employers, hostile guards, and rude customers.
The main enemies of grassroots vigilance are personality cult, loyalty to party 'high command', sycophancy and a controlled economy where permit-licence is a pre-condition to economic survival, Minoo Masani wrote in 1989.
CM Yogi Adityanath claims that from being called a ‘bimaru’ state, UP is now among the top-3 economies in India. The 2026 Budget session of the UP assembly is currently underway.
This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they’d seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe.
COMMENTS