Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal Talks About Helping Gig Workers in India
New Delhi [India], July 7: Bhavish Aggarwal, the co-founder and CEO of Ola, believes that companies should help gig workers by providing social security and insurance. He thinks India can be a leader in this area.
In an interview, Aggarwal said, “As an ecosystem between the companies and the central and state governments, we need to innovate on how a gig worker can get some kind of social security, some kind of insurance. And India can actually be the trendsetter in this.”
Gig workers are independent contractors or freelancers who work for short periods. Aggarwal noted that India has the potential to set an example because it is less corporatized than the US.
He also mentioned that Ola is talking with the government to improve the situation for gig workers. “As you save money through technological interventions, part of the profit should go to the gig workers so that more gig workers also come in. They find it more lucrative to work,” he added.
Recognizing the growing trend of gig work, government policy think tank NITI Aayog released a report titled ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’. The report estimates that there were about 7.7 million gig workers in India in 2020-21, making up 2.6% of the non-agricultural workforce. This number is expected to grow to 23.5 million by 2029-30, accounting for 4.1% of India’s overall income and 6.7% of the non-agricultural workforce.
