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Explainer | Tying and Bundling
— by Abhineet Nayyar and Isha Suri — last modified Oct 16, 2024 01:58 AMEarlier this year, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs released the draft Digital Competition Bill for public comment. Although much has been written about the ex-ante process it proposes, there is little discussion of the nine Anti-Competitive Practices, or ACPs, that the draft Bill builds on. Even when it exists, this discussion is often accompanied by heavy jargon, thereby limiting its accessibility for small businesses, workers, and consumers who are most affected by these ACPs.
Platforming precarity: Data narratives of workers sustaining urban platform services
— by Aayush Rathi, Abhishek Sekharan, Ambika Tandon, Chetna V. M., Chiara Furtado, Nishkala Sekhar, and Sriharsha Devulapalli — last modified Oct 15, 2024 02:42 AMCIS conducted quantitative surveys with over 800 workers employed in the app-based taxi and delivery sectors across 4 cities in India as part of the ‘Labour Futures’ project supported by the Internet Society Foundation. The surveys covered key employment indicators, including earnings and working hours, work-related cost burdens, income and social security, and platform policies and management. Findings from these surveys are presented as data visualisation briefs centring workers’ everyday experiences. These data briefs form a foundational evidence base for policy and action around labour rights, social protection, and urban inclusion in platform work.
Gig and platform workers’ perspectives on worker collectives
— by Shaik Salauddin — last modified Aug 13, 2024 02:50 AMThis report highlights findings from a survey conducted by the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union on platform workers’ perspectives around various worker collectives, particularly platform worker unions and cooperative societies. The survey was conducted with workers working for app-based platform companies like Ola, Uber, InDriver, Swiggy, Zomato, and Flipkart.
Future of the Commons: A Conversation on Artificial Intelligence, Indian Languages, and Archives Conference Report
— by Soni Wadhwa, Puthiya Purayil Sneha, Garima Agrawal and Nishant Shankar — last modified Aug 06, 2024 03:24 AMWe are pleased to share our report on the ‘Future of the Commons: A Conversation on Artificial Intelligence, Indian Languages, and Archives’ conference, held in July 2024 at the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) in Pune.
Combinations and Competition: Why the draft DCB must account for digital mergers and acquisitions
— by Abhineet Nayyar and Isha Suri — last modified Aug 08, 2024 07:47 AMMergers and Acquisitions (collectively, M&As or Combinations) have been a common practice in industry consolidation for many years now. In fact, as Zuckerberg’s infamous quote suggests, it might be one of the central pillars of today’s internet economy.
Karnataka’s uniform fare policy—Do attempts at parity consider the impact on workers?
— by Chiara Furtado and Nishkala Sekhar — last modified Jul 08, 2024 03:53 AMChiara Furtado and Nishkala Sekhar write in The News Minute about the Karnataka transport department’s February 2024 fare policy aiming for parity between aggregator (app-based) and other taxis. While policy interventions towards parity is a welcome step, the article highlights how inequalities and systemic barriers to parity remain for workers.
‘Future of work’ or 21st–century oppressed labour?: Findings from an AIGWU survey with 50 Urban Company housekeeping workers in Bengaluru
— by Nihira Ram — last modified May 16, 2024 03:29 PMn this essay, Nihira Ram shares findings from a survey done by the All India Gig Workers Union with more than 50 migrant workers living in a slum in Bengaluru. The workers primarily provided cleaning and domestic services on the platform, Urban Company (previously UrbanClap).
That Is Not A Livelihood – That Is Helplessness”: Field notes from the Fraazo Delivery Workers Strike in Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad
— by Rikta Krishnaswamy — last modified Apr 24, 2024 02:05 AMIn this essay, Rikta Krishnaswamy of the All India Gig Workers’ Union (AIGWU) narrates her experiences of organising and supporting delivery workers’ collective action against Fraazo (a now-defunct platform for produce and grocery delivery). Her essay sheds light on the challenges workers face in organising for better conditions of work. She describes how platforms hide behind legal smokescreens and threats of police action to shirk their responsibility as employers. To make matters worse, obscure employment terms and work management systems make it harder for workers to seek redress from the government through labour dispute resolution processes. The essay is illustrative of how digital platforms have exploited and violated freedoms of the gig workers they employ, while facing no accountability. For this to change, gig workers have to be guaranteed employment rights along with collective rights to their data.
The Platform Economy’s Gatekeeping of Class and Caste Dominance in Urban India
— by Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi — last modified Apr 19, 2024 03:11 AMAmbika Tandon and Aayush Rathi contributed an essay on how gated society management apps like MyGate and NoBrokerHood feed on caste and income inequalities in new datafied forms. The essay features in The Formalization of Social Precarities, an anthology edited by Murali Shanmugavelan and Aiha Nguyen and published with Data & Society.
Online Gender Based Violence on Short Form Video Platforms
— by Divyansha Sehgal and Lakshmi T. Nambiar — last modified Apr 11, 2024 03:24 AMAn inquiry into platform policies and safeguards. This report explores how short-form video platforms in India address online gender based violence (oGBV) by analysing their terms of service, community guidelines (CG), and reporting workflows.
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