What are the necessary ecosystem changes to sustain and scale new collar gig work?

What are the necessary ecosystem changes to sustain and scale new collar gig work?

To sustain and scale new collar gig work, the sources indicate that all concerned stakeholders—Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs), industry, and government—need to play an active role in addressing challenges and making the gig economy sustainable, scalable, and viable.

Here are the necessary ecosystem changes:

•Role of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs):

◦Prepare students for gig roles by including modules on freelancing, digital marketing, and financial literacy as part of the curriculum.

◦Impart contemporary skills and conduct credit-based evaluation of gig projects.

◦Collaborate with the industry to provide gig platforms and startups for short live project opportunities.

◦Encourage students to showcase their skills through live projects using platforms like GitHub, Dribbble, and Kaggle.

◦Set up mentoring and counseling support for students and recognize top-performers.

◦Examples of such initiatives include BITS Pilani introducing a "Freelancing" module and IIT Madras partnering with Zoho for gig internships.

•Role of the Industry:

◦Create dedicated gig platforms for engineers.

◦Offer micro-internships and gig projects to students.

◦Maintain pools of vetted freelancers for just-in-time hiring.

◦Create talent pipelines, offering regular employment to well-performing gig professionals.

◦Provide upskilling opportunities for enrolled gig workers.

◦Examples include TCS curating the Ion Digital Marketplace, which has onboarded over 15,000 gig workers and absorbed about 40% of top performers into projects, and Wells Fargo establishing a "Gig Talent Pool" to hire Indian freelancers for fraud analytics and AI jobs.

•Role of the Government:

◦Recognize the gig workforce as a vital pillar of the new-age economy.

◦Provide social security and well-being initiatives for gig workers, such as identity cards, e-Shram registration, and healthcare security under PM Jan Arogya Yojana. This initiative is expected to empower nearly 10 million gig workers.

◦Undertake pilot initiatives to register platform workers and aggregators, as the Ministry of Labour & Employment has done with the e-Shram portal.

◦Establish Platform-Based Gig Workers Welfare Boards to provide social security and welfare benefits, as the Karnataka government has done, with other states expected to follow.

◦Consider setting up a "Gig India Mission" and formulating strategies and action plans to realize India's potential as a Global Gig Hub for new-collar skills.

These concerted efforts are crucial for the gig careers to evolve from short-term sustenance models to long-term rewarding professional careers, offering opportunities for higher income, growth, and innovation. This approach can help India leverage its demographic dividend for achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat 2047 by rightly skilling its youth.