What India’s gig economy needs as platform work evolves

This article is authored by Srikanth Reddy Kalakonda, founder & CEO, Hala Mobility.

India’s gig economy has solved one important problem at scale i.e, access to work. The next challenge is making that work sustainable.

Gig economy (PTI)

According to the Economic Survey 2025-26 India's gig workforce grew from 77 lakh in FY21 to 120 lakh in FY25, a 55% increase in four years. Gig workers now account for more than 2% of India’s total workforce, while non-agricultural gig work is projected to constitute 6.7% of the workforce by 2029-30.

Earlier, NITI Aayog estimated 7.7 million gig workers in 2020-21 and projected the workforce to reach 23.5 million by 2029-30.

For a delivery partner or driver, income is not determined only by the payout on an app. It depends on access to a reliable vehicle, operating costs, financing, maintenance, insurance and how much productive time the worker can actually spend on the road.

In many ways, the vehicle is the workplace. The future of gig work will therefore depend not just on platforms creating more orders, but on an ecosystem that makes every working hour more productive, predictable and secure.

India has already taken an important step by formally recognising gig and platform workers within its social-security framework. The Code on Social Security provides for schemes covering areas such as life and disability, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits and old-age protection.

But social protection cannot be the entire definition of worker security.

A gig worker also needs a practical safety net around the act of working itself: access to a vehicle, affordable financing, reliable maintenance, suitable insurance and the ability to stay productive.

If a vehicle breaks down for two days, the worker does not simply lose access to an asset. They lose two days of potential income. If a battery takes too long to charge or a vehicle spends excessive time in a workshop, productive hours are lost.

For a gig worker, uptime is income.

A vehicle entering the gig economy is not simply manufactured, sold and handed over to a driver. It becomes part of a longer operational lifecycle spanning financing, deployment, daily usage, servicing, software, battery management, refurbishment and eventually recycling.

At each stage, data can play a role.

Connected EVs can generate information through IoT systems, battery-management systems, vehicle-control units and connected software. Combined with operational data, this can potentially provide insights into battery health, vehicle utilisation, driving patterns, energy consumption and maintenance requirements.

This creates an opportunity to move from reactive maintenance to predictive maintenance. Instead of waiting for a vehicle to fail, operators can potentially identify early signs of battery degradation or component wear and plan maintenance around actual usage.

Access to a vehicle remains an important part of entering and sustaining gig work.

Traditional vehicle financing models are not always designed around workers whose incomes can fluctuate by day, week or season. This creates an opportunity for micro-financing, leasing and other flexible ownership models designed specifically around gig work.

The question should not simply be whether a worker can afford a vehicle’s upfront cost. It should be whether the vehicle can generate enough income to sustainably pay for itself while leaving adequate take-home earnings.

Better visibility into vehicle utilisation and operating performance could also help lenders develop financing products more closely aligned with the economics of platform work.

The same principle applies to insurance.

A gig worker’s risk exposure is closely linked to how, where and how much the vehicle is being used. This creates an opportunity to explore usage-based insurance models that better reflect actual vehicle usage and driving patterns.

There is also scope to think about protection around the worker, rather than only around the vehicle, covering some of the risks that arise from their livelihood.

The objective should be simple: workers should not have to choose between protecting their income and maximising it.

The next phase of India’s gig economy requires a more integrated approach.

The ecosystem cannot consist of a platform on one side and a worker on the other. It needs to connect vehicle manufacturers, EV and battery companies, charging and battery-swapping networks, mobility operators, technology providers, financiers, insurers, service networks, training providers and workers themselves.

Together, these pieces can create something more valuable than a vehicle or a job platform by building the infrastructure needed to support a worker’s livelihood.

The next phase of India’s gig economy should therefore be measured differently.

How many productive hours are lost because of vehicle downtime?

How much of a worker’s income goes towards financing, fuel, charging and maintenance?

How quickly can a vehicle return to the road after a breakdown?

Can a worker access affordable insurance and credit?

These questions point towards a new metric for the gig economy i.e., livelihood uptime.

It is the ability of a worker to consistently access work, operate a reliable asset, stay protected against risk and convert their time on the road into sustainable income.

India’s gig economy has already demonstrated that millions of people are willing to participate in flexible, platform-led work. The next challenge is to ensure that the ecosystem around them evolves at the same pace.

The future of gig work will not be determined only by how many jobs platforms create. It will be determined by whether workers have the vehicle, financing, insurance, services, skills and infrastructure needed to keep earning.

If we can connect these pieces, the gig economy can move from simply creating flexible work to creating more sustainable livelihoods.

That is ultimately the shift India needs i.e., from a gig economy built around transactions to one built around the long-term economics of the worker.

(The views expressed are personal)

This article is authored by Srikanth Reddy Kalakonda, founder & CEO, Hala Mobility.