Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the entanglement of skilled digital platform workers from India between their inability to grow locally and capitalist accumulation through international migration in a post-pandemic global economy.

Paper long abstract:

Work and modes of doing work have undergone phenomenal changes in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. The transition in the nature of work has also led stakeholders to realise their dependence and vulnerability in relation to the world economy. Digital platform work bears the benefit of accessibility of work using devices and connectivity despite the lack of traditional office infrastructure. While it is seemingly disconnected from the formal tie-ups of work, yet at the same time digital economy is embedded in transnational dependedness. Considered a highly skilled sector of labour, digital platform work is the closest to capitalist accumulation through labour employees can achieve. For employees working in platforms across the global south, one of the incentives for undertaking platform work was migration to host nations in the global north. However, increased restrictions imposed by nations of the global north in a post-pandemic economy, as well as increased infrastructural cuts in the global south, have led many platform workers to feel entrapped in a cyclical loop, thereby hindering their growth. Using literature based on the Indian platform workers post-pandemic, this article reviews the situation of growth of Indian platform workers and its long-term impact on the economy.

Keywords: Digital Platforms, Indian employees, Migration, Platform work,