The authors examine the pivotal roles of individuals and collectives, alongside their embedded socio-economic and technical arrangements, to show the multifaceted dimensions of the rapid proliferation of platforms, burgeoning platform memberships, and the ensuing multidimensional social exchanges in India.
Abstract
Digital platforms have garnered both apprehension and admiration for their disruptive influence on social systems, structures, and everyday lives. However, research insights on digital platforms and ecosystems, both in theory and practice, largely emerge from the Global North. Pivoting this focus to the Global South, An Introduction to Platform Economy in India explores the operational socio-technical framework of India’s growing platform economy at the confluence of numerous platform ecosystems developed both globally and nationally.
Employing an economic sociology perspective, the authors examine the pivotal roles of individuals and collectives, alongside their embedded socio-economic and technical arrangements, to show the multifaceted dimensions of the rapid proliferation of platforms, burgeoning platform memberships, and the ensuing multidimensional social exchanges in India. The chapters respond to growing interest in India’s platform economies by showing how the country figures prominently in visions of platform futures, whether as an emerging market, a critical node in global supply chains, or a catalyst for technological innovation.
Promising to be a timely intervention grounded in economic sociological analysis, this introductory text bridges the existing gap in the production of such scholarly literature from the Global South. By shedding light on the intricacies of platform dynamics, adoption, usage, and their impact on the social and economic lives of people in India, readers gain valuable insights that inform our understanding of the broader global dynamics of platform economies.
The paper contributes a Digital Leapfrogging Readiness framework organised around four interdependent conditions — infrastructural, institutional, capability and content conditions — and derives five strategic imperatives for firms competing in these markets.
Deesha Sarmah· International journal of res...· 0 citations
The platform and gig economy exemplifies a profound change in the structuring, exchanging and rewarding of labor in the economy. Typically, the traditional employment relationship is based on long-term contracts, and identifiable employers, while gig work is based on digitally mediated, decentralized work transactions between service providers and clients. This in turn has significant implications for the legal system, labor rights, and social protection systems in India. Given its growing digital infrastructure and surplus labor force, India is a site of such work.
According to estimates from the International Labor Organization (ILO), there were more than 777 digital labor platforms worldwide by 2023, thus generating millions of jobs and exacerbating employment precarities. In addition, the NITI Aayog estimated that gig and platform employment workforce was 7.7 million and would grow to 23.5 million by 2030, which would be about 6.7% of the non-agricultural workforce in India. This was reaffirmed in the ILO’s 2024, “Expansion of the Gig and Platform Economy in India Report” which agrees and takes note that platform workers have developed into a new class of economic actors that still have an unclear legal status and recognition.
The ambiguity that workers faced was further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though the lockdowns imposed did halt many sectors, platform based services, such as delivery, online freelancing, and logistics, quickly expanded. This underscored both the resilience and the vulnerabilities present in the gig work sector. Questions of social security problems escalated, as did the issue of declining incomes due to rising platform commissions and algorithmic opacity. In response to this uncertain political economy of labor, questions around the employment categorization of platform workers have become urgent. Are these workers employees, independent contractors, or a categorization of something in between? This paper examines these issues through the lens of the Indian laws, comparative global analysis and emerging policy responses
Avadhi Jain, Daksh Dhariwal· ILE LABOUR LAW REVIEW· 0 citations
Leading to a more profound critique of the concept of value itself and linking to broader political stakes and theoretical questions, Devalue is relevant for scholars and students including Information and Communication Science, Media Studies, Internet Studies, Critical Theory, Political Economy of Communications, Sociology, Socioeconomics, Philosophy, Society and Technology studies, and Digital Humanities.
India’s fragmented regulatory architecture, spanning competition law, intermediary regulation, data governance, and sector-specific controls, produces overlapping and sometimes contradictory legal classifications of Big Tech firms, generating a parallax effect within law itself, enabling both regulatory discretion and strategic compliance by platforms.
P. Ashok· National Law School Business...· 0 citations