Page 719 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

346 Economic Survey 2020-21 Volume 2

16 Economic Survey, 2018-19 Department Rigidity in the labour laws make employers
Volume-I, Chapter-3 of Economic in Inflexible States prefer substituting labour
Affairs, M/o with capital. Inflexible states due to rigidity
Finance of their labour laws suffer in all dimensions
as they are unable to create enough
employment, cannot attract adequate capital
into their states and their wages are lower
as their productivity is lower. The Survey
recommended deregulating labour law
restrictions can create significantly more jobs.
17 Labour Codes- 2020 Ministry of The Government has simplified, rationalized
Present status Labour & and amalgamated 29 Central Labour Laws/
Employment Acts into four Labour Codes, viz.: (i) the
Code on Wages, 2019, (ii) the Industrial
Relations Code, 2020, (iii) Occupational
Safety, Health and Working Conditions
Code, 2020, (iv) Code on Social Security,
2020. The Code on Wages has been notified
on 08.08.2019. The other three Codes,
namely, the Industrial Relations Code, the
Occupation Safety, Health and Working
Conditions Code and the Code on Social
Security have been notified on 29.09.2020.
Source: Survey Compilation from Government websites

Changing Nature of Work: Gig and Platform Workers
10.22 The nature of work has been changing with the change in technology, evolution of new
economic activities, innovation in organization structures and evolving business models. Digital
platforms have emerged as enablers for employment creation with the power to easily discover
job seekers and job providers in the absence of middlemen. Apart from traditional forces,
these new forces have created massive opportunities for the consumer and service provider to
interact through innovative ways. Digital technology enables two-sided markets which saw the
5
emergence of e-commerce and online retailing platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Ola, Uber,
Urban Clap, Zomato, Swiggy etc. India has emerged as one of the largest country for flexi-
staffing in the world.
10.23 During the period of COVID-19 induced lockdown, the increasing role of the gig
economy was evident with significant growth of online retail business. The lockdown period also
saw employers preferring 'Work from home' of their employees, cutting down on staff strength
and engaging freelancers or outsourcing tasks to reduce overhead costs as well as to hire skilled
services. With increasing demand in industries for on hire project-specific consultants, logo/
content designers, web designers etc. for the white-collar workers, the delivery boys and taxi

5 Two-sided market is one in which i) two sets of agents interact through an intermediary or platform, and ii) the
decisions of each set of agents affects the outcomes of the other set of agents, typically through an externality
[Rysman, Marc. 2009. 'The Economics of Two Sided Market'. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23 (3): 125-143].