Heated Debate on Tradtional Employment vs Gig Economy | Shankar IAS Academy Teacher's Day Part - 1 |

Good afternoon respected chairperson, distinguished faculty members, and my dear students. A very warm welcome to each of each one of you this special celebration of Teachers' Day. A day set aside to honor the guiding lights of our institution. Today we come together to express our gratitude to our teachers, celebrate the spirit of learning, and recognize the achievements of our talented students. Without further delay, let us begin today's proceedings. To invoke divine blessings set and set a serene tone for our celebration, let us begin with Tamil Thai Valthu. I request our students to please raise for the occasion. >> [music] [music] [music and singing] [music] >> Thank you. That was a soulful beginning. It is my honor to invite Dr. Vaishnavi ma'am, our respected chairperson, to deliver the welcome address. Ma'am, the floor is yours. >> Good afternoon, everyone. Respected members of the faculty, distinguished guests, senior colleagues, dear students, and members of Shankar IAS Academy family, it gives me immense pleasure and pride to welcome you all to this very special occasion when we celebrate the Teachers' Day. Today is not merely an occasion marked on the calendar, it's an occasion to recognize the very foundation upon which the institution lies. Buildings may create an institution, systems may strengthen it, results may establish its reputation, but it is the teacher who gives an institution its soul. And therefore, today, we as we gather here, our first and foremost tribute is to the teachers who have dedicated themselves to the noble responsibility of shaping young minds. At Shankar IAS Academy, we carry a mission that extends far beyond the civil services examination. Every year, thousands of young men and women enter our classrooms carrying aspirations, not merely to secure a prestigious career, but to contribute to the nation and to serve the society. That aspiration places a tremendous responsibility upon all of us. We are not merely preparing the candidates for an examination, we are helping prepare the future custodians of public institutions. And at the heart of that responsibility stands our faculty. A teacher's contribution cannot be measured merely by the number of classes taken, chapters completed, tests evaluated, or the discussions done. The real measure lies in something much deeper. How many minds have been awakened? How many doubts have been transformed into clarity? How many failures have been transformed into renewed determination? And how many young people have been inspired to believe that they are capable of serving something which is larger than themselves. That is the true measure of a teacher. The civil services examination is demanding by design. It is knowledge, analytical ability, judgement, consistency, and temperament. But the qualities required of a civil servant cannot be acquired from the books alone. They must be cultivated. Integrity, objectivity, empathy, discipline, they all must be cultivated. And above all, the spirit of public service must be cultivated. Our teachers contribute to that cultivation every single day. When a faculty member stays back after class to answer one more question, when an answer script is evaluated with painstaking attention, when a struggling aspirant is encouraged to attempt again, or when a teacher challenges a student to think beyond the conventional answers, these are not routine academic activities. They are acts of mentorship. And often we never know the full impact of such acts. A student may forget a particular lecture, a student may forget a particular test score, but they will remember the teacher who told them at a difficult moment, "Do not give up." That single sentence can sometimes change a life. This is why on behalf of the management of Shankar IAS Academy, I want to place on record our deepest appreciation for our entire faculty. On this Teachers' Day, let us renew our commitment to excellence, not merely in the results, but in the quality of education, mentorship, and values we impart. To our teachers, I say this with utmost sincerity. The management may provide you the institution, but you give it its character. The academy may provide the platform, but you give our students their direction. And while our results may be displayed on a notice board, your true results are the lives you have influenced. We are proud of you. We are grateful to you. And we remain committed to supporting you in the important work that you you do. To our students, I leave you with the one thought. One day, your success may bring you a position. But the values taught by your teachers will determine what you do with that position. Remember that. Respect your teachers. Learn from them. Question them. Challenge yourselves through them. And when your journey takes you into positions of responsibility, carry forward the same spirit of mentorship and service. Let us ensure that the classrooms of Shankar IAS Academy do not merely produce ranks. Let them produce minds that think deeply, hearts that understand, and public servants who serve with integrity. That is the tribute our teachers truly deserve. With immense pride and gratitude, I once again welcome you all to this Teachers' Day celebration. And to every teacher who has contributed to the journey of Shankar IAS Academy and to the dreams of our students. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your commitment. Thank you for your belief. And thank you for shaping the future of our nation one student at a time. Happy Teachers' Day to all our esteemed teachers. Thank you, everyone. >> At the outset, I would like to thank the entire Shankar Academy family for this opportunity. I always deem it a privilege to be a part of this family, a member of the faculty of Shankar IAS Academy. I've been a member of faculty of Madras Christian College for nearly 28 years. And a member of faculty in Shankar IAS Academy for the past 18 years. I really deem it a privilege. Also, they have given me wonderful opportunities whenever we have a program of celebration here. I thank the family and uh Vaishnavi madam for this opportunity. Uh now, I call upon uh Subhakirthana to announce the rules for this program. >> I just tell the rules of the uh debate today. So, we have two teams here, team A and team B. And everybody will be given 5 minutes of time. And at the fourth minute, you'll be given a ring so that it's a reminder that you have to conclude your debate. And once both of you have presented your debate, so you'll be given one person from one team an opportunity to give a counter rebuttal. And once you have given your counter rebuttal, so sir will be giving you the conclusion and the result of the debate. >> So, the topic for uh uh today's debate is the future of work, gig economy or traditional employment. So, you can start start right away. From anyone from uh there is A1. Who's A1? Yeah, okay. >> A very pleasant good afternoon to everyone. Myself K.M. Lingodayar, a student of Shankar IAS Academy. Today, I'm here to talk about the future of work. Is it going to be gig economy or traditional employment? Before I start, I would like to start with a question. Uh what comes to our mind when we think about gig economy? Is it a Zomato or Swiggy delivery partner or an Uber driver? Mhm. If that is the case, we need to unlearn something before we even begin this debate. Because uh gig economy, the word as itself mentions economy, it's vast. So, what uh what gig actually means is gig essentially means it is a type of it is a type of work it is a type of work which is flexible, task-based, and short-term. Which does not have the traditional employee employment employee employer relationship that can be seen in a traditional 9-to-5 job. And apart from this, gig also includes a lot. For example, number one, it has platform platform workers like delivery partners of Swiggy and Zomato. Also, it has independent workers like content creators, tutors, photographers, and etc. Also, we have highly skilled freelancers like programmers, designers, consultants, analysts, and many other things. Even lawyers who come here and work as part-time as the teachers and stuff. So, um these are only some of the examples that have been that I'm giving. This list is not exhaustive. This is just to say this list is not exhaustive. We'll be we we have a lot of other examples. Before we proceed further, I would like to add couple of other examples or other situations to make it bit more interesting. Many of us have heard about these apps which I mentioned, like Swiggy, Zomato, Upwork, Fiverr, and many other gig economy-based apps. And most of us in our mobile phones will be having those apps. Including the members of our opposition. Why I'm telling why I'm I'm insisting on this is because whether we realize it or not, gig economy, we are part of gig economy. We are participating in it. Sometimes as sometimes as workers, sometimes as members, sometimes as both. And one more example I think will make it more clear. This will be very interesting. Many of us are students here. Most of us are student. And when we don't understand a topic in class, what do we do? Do we go to the market Do we go to Do we Do we find a new teacher in the market? No. We go to YouTube. We type the topic name. We see a video. We understand it and then we move on with our life. But, what are we doing here exactly? We are consuming the labor of a person who may not be our teacher, who may not work in this institution, whose primary objective or whose primary occupation itself may not be education or teaching. And I'm very much sure and I'm pretty sure many of us in the opposition and many of us in this hall have done the same thing to understand some concept or other which they couldn't understand otherwise. So, ladies and gentlemen of the opposition, whether you realize it or not, maybe you haven't realized it yet, but you have already become part of the gig economy. Okay. So, now we have understood how wide and how diverse the gig economy is. And many of the workers who are part of the gig economy, they contribute to this economy in their own in their own capacity and autonomy. So, but if we see in this diverse aspect which we have discussed, we can witness one common thing, a common transformation that is taking place. The way we work is actually changing. It is becoming more short-term, flexible, at the same time it's becoming task-based. And this is the exact transformation that we need to examine when we talk about the future of the work. Because transformation takes place in every aspect. As a human society, we evolve. Our aspirations grow, our needs evolve, the standard of living improve. So, then why should we confine the way we work alone to the traditional ways itself? I'm not saying traditional jobs or traditional employment is not going to be there. It will be there. It will be part of the future, but it is not going to decide the future or define the future. The future is going to be defined or decided by a very vast diverse labor market where everyone where many the people may have a traditional employment, but alongside they'll be having freelancing, or platform works, or many other side incomes. So, that is precisely why I say that the future of the work is going to be gig economy. Thank you. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. >> Thank you. Now, uh B1. >> Respected judges, moderators, my fellow participants, and everyone present here, a very good afternoon. My name is Harita. I'm from team B. We are on the sides of traditional employment. As we celebrate Teachers' Day today, we remember Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan sir, who believed that the education, the purpose of education is not merely to create a skilled individual, but to create a responsible human being. The workforce should also follow the same principle. That's why we will be saying the work should not be measured only by flexibility or income. It should be measured by a dignity, security, and also the ability to build a meaningful life. Then, let me say a small story. Imagine two young graduates, Arjun and Ravi, who are working in the same workplace. Not They are working in some same situation. Arjun joins a red tech company as a full-time employer. Then, he earns a monthly income that is a stable income. Then, his organization gives him a health insurance. He learns from experienced professionals. He slowly grows from an employee to a top-level leader. Then, Ravi is equally talented one. He joins a gig economy job. That Through that, he works on multiple digital platforms. Then, he enjoys flexibility, decides own working hours, then earns on the basis of the task he completes. Initial, they both appear successful. But then, an unexpected situation arises. A global economic slowdown affects their life. They work. Arjun faces challenges, but he still has certain protections like saving supports, organizations standing with him, and an employee benefits. Whereas, Ravi who is having a uncertainty because his income depends on continuous availability of task force and market demand. Then, they need to see the question here is not about which person is better. The question is what type of workforce is better for the future generation. I need to delve on the first four words of the agenda today, the future of work. The future of work. What exactly are we trying to build for the future generation? There are two There are two options in front of us. Option one, a labor market where people can log in with maximum flexibility. Option number two, a labor market with security, dignity, and flexibility. So, this is the distinction that lies in the heart of the debate today. According to the World Bank report, it says titled Gig Economy and the Future of Work, gig economy refers to a work that is short-term, and the labor is exchanged for money, often facilitated through multiple digital platforms. Whereas, the traditional employment refers to a structured employer-employee relationship that builds confidence and the credibility of the future generation. Then, we need to see on the perspective perspectives of the freelancers or What is that? Uh delivery partners. They may have the freedom to choose the working hours, but what happens during illness, injury, or any economic slowdown? The future generation of the society should not create a workforce that is flexible, but also that is vulnerable. So, it can't be used for the future generation. Then, we need to see on the criteria of the gig economy also. Gig economy produced provides more valuable opportunities, but it did not give the long-term security for us. We might see the gig workers pursuing and continuing aspirations like government examinations. We can see presence of numerous UPSC, TNPC, NEET, JEE institution around us. That reflects one reality. Still, many people are striving to get a government job. That gives us the security. So, the future generation still strives for the traditional employment. Thank you, sir. >> So, crush. You finished well in advance. Next, B2. Sorry, A2. Let me give my points at the end of the discussion. >> Respected judges, esteemed opponent team members, and one and all present here. First of all, a warm good afternoon to everyone. I'm V.R. Aditya, and I'm here to speak that gig economy is the future of India. One of the simplest question which I'm going to ask today is consider free time of 2 hours in between your classes, a bike that is ideal at your home, as well as a spare room that is available in your household. All this can be converted into a source of income. How? Exactly, this question is answered with the help of gig economy. Let us take the example of a bike. A bike can be used by an aspirant, example anybody here who needs and physical support or stability in that free time of 2 hours to use it as a delivery partner or for a ride hauling example the Rapido and everything. Also, anybody with a smartphone and the skill can use that skill to provide the freelancing services not only inside India as well as outside India. This is what I try to say as the micro export revolution which is currently happening in India. The gig platforms provides for an opportunity for the conversion of the common consumer goods into an productive capital. That is nothing but transforming all these assets as an example which I was saying into this are already depreciating incomes like depreciating expenses of household. These are converted into income generating aspects or instruments. The final goal of India is to like the basic idea is to convert every Indian household into an micro MNCs. One such example is a person from Indore, a coder or a designer from Madurai can give his services through a freelancing option to countries or companies across the globe. He's not restricted or defined to a specific limit or his his ability is used by anybody who is in need of it. This also provides us the This also solves the issue of current account deficit which is nothing but bringing more foreign currency into our country. One more example is this gig economy provides us an huge opportunity to bring the concept of inclusive growth and equitable income distribution which is the most important thing for a country like India. Let us take an illustrative example. A person from a tier two or tier three city in India is working for a company in USA. He will get the same pay or sometimes more than the same pay which a tier one company worker might get. So, this brings him no no difference between the income generated but the income which he is getting will be used in the same town instead of him moving to a tier one city. This also consider this is can also be considered as reducing one of important issues created under the formal employment, which is nothing but distress migration. Especially everybody know there are more distress migration from rural to urban areas. This around 11.8% of this distress migration in India has been reduced once this gig economy started to evolve. One of the biggest question everybody might have here is who is getting benefited from this. The simplest answer is aspirational workers. The people who have aspiration to achieve a specific task or else to become a self-employed or self-entrepreneurial job. Until achieving their goals, this gig economy helps them by giving a helping hand in a financial level as well as in social level where they doesn't consider them as unemployed but as partly employed. Then I would like to say that this gig economy don't consider it as an unsafe or a temporary labor. This is one of the greatest democratic attempts of bringing human capital in India where everybody or every citizen with the skill can get training as well as learn and rebuild the skills in India. Once I next I come to the issue with the woman employment where in the traditional employment usually the women they are like forced to go out of their employment once they get married or sometimes child birth or due to elderly uh elderly care. Around 73% of the workforce in India is under this category. When I'm saying the gig gig employment provides a flexibility for them in the timing and place of work, I'm not saying they should restrain within their houses. I'm saying that the work which is there for them should be adapting to their life rather than forcefully adapting themselves into some rigid workplaces. One of the important points they are mentioning is the social security. There are several government initiatives such as the conduct of social security which is specifically given a framework for the social security of the gig workers as as well as the platform workers. Take an example of Urban Company where a specialist is like trained. Example a beautician or an electrician, he gets training and then attains the position of a specialist and then he is like treated as a micro level entrepreneur. Thank you. >> I think he has one more minute. Five minutes over? Yeah, you have one more minute. >> So >> Four plus one. Yes, four plus one. Five over. You indicate after the four fourth minute. Okay. Yeah, it's over. You please indicate at the end of the fourth minute. Now from B2, the next person. >> Mike, can you find him? >> Good afternoon, everyone. I said good afternoon, guys. Perfect. Hello, everybody. My name is Teja and today I'm really honored to be speaking in the in this debate on the topic of traditional employment. See, when the the debate today is about whether the future of India is in traditional employment or not. Now, whenever we have to think about the future of our country, the one document that we need to refer to is the constitution of our country. And the first introduction to our constitution the preamble says every citizen should be ensured social, political, economic justice and assuring the dignity of every individual. Now, this very basis of gig economy is not assuring the dignity and economic equality for every citizen. Now, let me tell you why. My first point comes from the well-being physical and mental for every worker involved in the gig economy. Gig economy, it's it's it's an economy as my friend has defined properly. It involves platforms, digital enterprises wherein people work for a very short term and for a very defined work. According to the International Labor Organization, 63% of the workers involved in the gig economy have no social security benefits. Now, imagine a person who is working as a delivery partner in Swiggy or Zomato or as a cab driver in Ola or Uber. He has no security once if any disruption comes. You can take the example of COVID-19 wherein International Labor Organization again reported that big platforms in India fired around 13 to 25% of its workforce. So, in in a minute people are laid off. There are no jobs left for them. There is no security for them. In that situation, imagine the mental pressure on the worker. The mental agony that the worker has gone through. I can give you a more relatable example. Most of us might have ordered food on Swiggy and Zomato, right? In that scenario, one thing the delivery partner constantly asks us to do. What is that? It is asking for a five-star rating. Exactly, rating. We might seem this is a harmless thing wherein we just click the stars on the app, but there is something else here. The person the delivery partner is not working for the company, he's working for an algorithm that doesn't take into consideration his own human problems, that doesn't think about the sick kid at his home, that doesn't think whether he has good health, doesn't think about whether he has good meal. Now, in this, can we really say if we have gig economy in our future, is it fulfilling the promises that our constitution gives us to every citizen? I don't think so. Coming to the second point, it's about resilience. COVID-19 already showed us that gig economy cannot sustain when some big shocks or disruptions come. Now, there is another disruption coming or I should rather say it has already come, artificial intelligence. According to the International Labor Organization, 30% of the skills of the current gig economy workers are no longer going to be relevant when AI becomes much more developed. If this is a scenario, then how can we even claim gig economy to be a part of our future? And my third point, and the core point comes about upskilling. Do we not need to offer our citizens an option for economic mobility, or do they have to stay like that forever? When we think about gig economy, most of the gig economy at least a major major part of it is involved in the informal or unskilled activities. Now, in case of a traditional employment, the enterprise has every incentive to re- train them, to retain, and redeploy every member of their workforce because experienced and the skilled and the loyal workforce is something worth fighting for. But, even according to the International Labor Organization and World Economic Forum, gig economy-based companies, they have no incentive to train their workers. They have no incentive to upskill their workers. So, when some major disruption like artificial intelligence and automation comes up, millions of people go unemployed. And this is exactly my concern. Now, I am not going arguing here that traditional economy is the only best thing here and as if it's not having any flaws. It has. It is a system and it has flaws and there is always a scope here for us to reform the system. But, on the other side of the aisle, they don't offer any system, it's based on a hoax. The exploitation is so immense, I recall the days of the initial days of industrial revolution, where there is just work and work and work and no money. And this is a concerning situation, ladies and gentlemen of the audience. So, I really expect every one of you to support in this cause that traditional employment should be the future of our country. We need to secure more social security for our workers. We need to be expanding our labor uh codes. With that, thank you. >> Both the teams have got convincing from their part. Let's wait and watch. So, next from here, A A3, okay. >> Greetings, everyone. I am Vinmeen Ranganathan from batch five. So, from my team members, they have clearly articulated that the traditional employment alone cannot define the future of work. It is the gig economy that answers the question that the traditional employment could could not solve. Firstly, the study conducted by the Atiwell and Torret, it is revealing that the caste, class, region, linguistic discrimination is very prevalent in private employment. A man from a lower caste or a minority community is less likely to get a call back for an interview. Forget about getting into an employment, to even enter into an interview table, he needs the entry barrier is existing in traditional employment. And this has been successfully nullified in gig economy. In gig economy, the access is open for anyone and everyone. And another study conducted by Azim Premji University, it it shows that 5 to 8 million graduates produced in every single year. Among them, only 2.8 million people get into job. Remaining stays unemployed. Now, it Now, with this trend, we can understand we can say that every year, 80 lakh jobs has to be created to accommodate these people. And I'm pretty sure that this cannot be done in traditional employment. Now, what do we mean by that? The gig economy, we are not saying gig economy is bypassing the traditional employment. It is adding an extension to it. Now, let me give put forward a real-life incidence which gives a more clarity and relate we can relate to it. Say for example, a woman in Bangalore is receiving an order of cutting vegetables as a work and selling it to another woman who is rushing to work to a 9-to-5 job. Now, what do we mean by this? We can also see the cloud kitchens happening here. We also we could also see women participating in economy by selling the homemade organic product through through WhatsApp. Now, every time when we talk about women, women is always participating in economic activity, but we categorize them as non-monetizing contribution of economy. But, if you take the survey, the periodic labor participation survey reveals that around 23% to 27% of urban women participation is accounted in urban areas. Now, when we look at urban areas, the urban areas actually the female graduates are higher than when compared to male graduates, but they are still stagnant to this 27%. On the other side, if we take the e-Shram portal, there are 54% of women registered to it. Now, what do we see here? We see here the informal workers are registering and women taking part is great in this amount. Now, overall, when we talk about this gig economy, there is a mechanism where an individual can enter into an economic activity and monetize it with the skills what whatever skills they have acquired. And when we talk about this in the particular context of neoliberal political economy where the where an individual's capability and ability is determining the monetizing power, that's where gig economy comes into play. It gives us an access. It For some, it may be an additional supplementary option. For some, it is the only option, but still they got an option and they can create an opportunity which traditional economy is lacking a lot. And opponents have always talking about social security. COVID COVID even in traditional employment people have been laid off. Even in Even today there are 50 50 persons are laying off per day in urban cities for various reasons. So, in gig economy the person knows from the day one, but in traditional employment he gets to know only when he got gets fired. So, I conclude by saying that in gig economy there is flexibility as our opponents have clearly realized it. It is flexibility when when it comes to flexibility there is an innovation. When there is an innovation there is a transformation. When there is transformation there is an evolution. So, in gig economy the evolution is happening and the government has have already realized it and it is it is transforming itself into formalizing the economy. This itself is evident that a fundamental transformation has already emerged and the gig economy is a new arm to the Indian economy. And thereby this is not a future, this is a present. This will eventually become a future and gig economy is has a great potential in future of work. With that I remain. Thank you. >> Now, the next person from uh the B team. >> Thank you, sir. I am Sandhya. I'm from batch five. Good afternoon to everybody. I would like to take all of us back to 1978. Maneka Gandhi versus Union of India case. Don't worry, I'm not going to draw up any lecture because we have end of PTSD from that case. But Supreme Court did something very substantial there. It said Article 21 doesn't merely ask if there's a procedure that exists. It asks if the procedure in itself is just, fair, and reasonable. Ladies and gentlemen, the Supreme Court did think something very substantial. They said that there's a clear distinction between formal liberty and meaningful liberty. Today, I want you to bring that very very distinction to this debate. Because gig economy collapses in one question, are gig workers actually free or just formally free? Because my opponents have told you about, you know, flexibility and everything. Is voluntary voluntary flexibility same as economic precarity disguised as flexibility? When I see migrant workers from Nepal living here in my PG and doing low salary jobs, I don't see flexibility there. When my junior writes Rapido to pay his tuition fee, I don't see flexibility there. What I see is survival under inhumane conditions. So, there's something that NITI Aayog clearly stated. NITI Aayog classifies gig economy workers as platform workers and non-platform workers. Platform workers surround around apps and algorithms, which my opponent stated. But our debate did not touch non-platform workers. These people are very far away from digital economy. This does not include these fancy freelancers. This also includes the construction workers who are very employed on temporary basis. These also include the temporary house helps that we have. So, are they also protected? If we are talking about gig economy as the future of the work, whose future are we talking about? The future of the vulnerable sections like the construction workers or the future of the bougie freelancers that we are talking about? Ladies and gentlemen, there is also one underlying assumption that really really bothers me. We all think that everybody has equal access to digital economy. Are we look overlooking the digital divide that is existing in our society? That is one question that we need to ponder about. And also, time and again, my opposition has talked about women and care economy workers. True, women and unpaid care economic uh are disproportionately carrying the brunt. But, when we employed in gig economy, are the women also holding insecure paid insecure work in addition to the disproportionate work that they already have? So, that is the double the burden, uh ladies and gentlemen. So, I'm not saying that traditional employment, you know, magically eradicated the problems that women go through. There are problems, and we acknowledge it. We are system, and we are actively thriving to, you know, work towards equality. We have maternity leave. We are also calling for paternity leaves. So, when these kind of protection officially, you know, stays in uh in our law, like industrial relations code, that is not there in the uh gig economy workers. And also, when if at all we need our demographic dividend to become economic dividend, we should not measure the success of jobs by seeing how many people, you know, got some kind of work, any kind of work. We have to measure the success of these people by seeing if they have any productive a lot of dignified labor that is socially protected. I would like to go back to the Constitution as my uh friend here said. Article 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 of DPSB talks about socio-economic justice. It talks about a living wage. It talks about the right to work. These aren't just economic uh you know, these aren't just decorative ideals lying in our Constitution. These define what a job should look like. And gig economy as currently structured, it does not fit any of them by design. And I think we all, you know, recently saw about the International Labor Organization's Convention number 193. The You know, this convention is one of its kind. It is the first legally binding treaty that, you know, classifies employers, that classifies occupational safety and social security for gig economy workers. And you know what India did? Indian government delegates abstained it. So, what does particular news show? This shows firstly, it shows that I have attended you know all current affairs class very regularly. But jokes apart, when India abstained, they had one question. Can the working sector of India depend on gig economy for its future? And that is a question that we also have to say. See, we are not, you know, defending the rigid 9-to-5 punch-out, punch-in relic. We are also calling for modern formal employment that offers you that flexibility. Remote, hybrid work with social protection, you know, recognition of worker rights. So, gig economy will exist, but as a supplement. We cannot, you know, put our stakes, our futures on gig economy. We have to recognize that it will exist as a supplement, but it will not be the architecture of Indian workforce. Thank you. >> Now, the second round or perhaps the final round, uh we'll give the first opportunity to the B team to rebel. And then they'll rebel your points. >> 10 seconds. >> Yeah, okay. Take. >> I don't So, for the rebuttal, I would like to raise some important questions. First, my position has stated that independent creators, like content creators, are part of the gig economy. I would like to go back to the definition. They are in fact not just gig economy workers. They are officially recognized as creators or self-employed. So, they are actually employed under the category of self-employment. This you don't have to trust me. You can go to the PLFS and it is them who, you know, recognize them as self-employed workers. So, one of my opponents, you know, raised the point of intersectionality. People, you know, of lower caste, lower class, you know, they do not get the same access. But I would like to point out that we have so many affirmative actions like reservation, which in fact comes under traditional employment. And we try to create you know level playing field and that is exactly why we have reservation and there's so many talks around it as well. And you know when we also raise the issue of intersectionality cast and everything, the migrant labors or you know the labors who you know do the unpaid work or also the jobs that are looked down upon are the these are also gig works, right? So these gig works are are they not affected by the same international intersectionality that my opposition has talked about? So I think we have to go back to the definition and also include the vulnerable sections of gig workers into the definition so that we have a more meaningful debate. And again my opposition you know raised the point of we have so much of spare time and you know that is why you know a lot of people you know take gig works and you know they go ahead and do it. But you cannot depend on spare time for the future of the work. So the debate structures you know gig economy as a future of the work. Are we really classifying something that we do for spare time as the future of our economy? I don't think so that is the definition that we rely on. And also they again mentioned about distress employment. See you talk about distress employment but not the distress of the people. There are so many protests that happened from the time frame of 2025 to 2026 where you saw many Swiggy workers no matter what are taking to the streets because they do not get the same social protection that you know people who are traditionally employed get. So that is one thing maybe you know the opposition should ponder about. There's so much talks about inclusive growth, democratic human capital and what not. But the very existence of gig economy works completely against it. One main point that they mentioned is the e-Shram portal or the code of social security code that came uh around in 2020. I would like to reinstate this point that code on code on social security which came in 2020 only operationalizes in 2025. It has not been materialized yet. And also the e-Shram portal that, you know, was recently talked about in the parliament itself, it has fully not materialized yet. So, there's a data that says that only five not even five out of six gig workers are reached by the government. So, it has a huge gap and we have a long way to go, you know, to recognize the gig economy. >> Now, the final say from 18. >> So, first of all, only point I'm like confused here is we are talking about the future of India. They are taking the past of India. And one more thing is like they are saying that there is no initiative for insurance or like social security. Main thing they are saying about the e-Shram portal, that is like we are saying e-Shram portal giving recognition for unorganized sectors. There are several other schemes that are given by government such as PMJSBY that gives about life and health security. Also, the PMJ scheme which is nothing but giving them the concept of pension and like enumerations after work which which is the government's initiative of trying to bring this unformal sector as a formal structure. So, these are like in the evaluation steps. One more main thing they were saying about like formal employment, they give maternity leave. I don't know whether they know the fact that recently Supreme Court's verdict about the maternity benefit, there is a concern about it. There are several cases where the women in this maternity relief after their maternity relief period, they don't get the same level of employment or for the same job. This the Supreme Court has insisted to give them the same job which says that there is actually a problem in that system. One more thing is the distress employment is nothing was which I was talking about. I was saying about something called as distress migration. That is an entirely different concept. Again, we were saying about the discriminatory aspects or and everything. That is basically we are talking about private employment and not about the government reservations. We support 100% in that also. One more important point is that we are trying to establish that work is not just a physical desk which a person should report to. It is like the autonomous value which he tries to create for the growth of his country. Then they were talking about some ILO reports. In the same ILO report, there is a prediction of increase in the workforce of our country, that is the gig worker force to 23.5 million by 2030. This shows that there is like an extraordinary opportunity for employment in that person, like in that field also. One more point I need to insist is like the double burden thing for the women. I don't get it whether a woman working a 9-to-5 job does not work in their home or it is a vice versa. It's always a double burden. Here, at least they have the flexibility or option to work 1 hour or 2 hours according to her wish and her place. And at last I would like to conclude with the words of our like finance minister, where she has reiterated in the budget itself that the gig workers of online platforms provide great dynamism for the new age sir like service sectors. So, what we are trying to say that a nation cannot advance only with the help of rationing the opportunities in the economy to the needs of corporate monopolies. We are trying to say that every individual citizen with the skill and an internet services which with the Bharat Net it is like getting so easy for every citizen should become an autonomous engine for the nation's growth. Thank you. >> I had my personal opinions before coming here. But now I'm really confused. Yeah. I want to take your support, your help. Okay? Anyhow, I have my own opinion. I'll narrate on that. Would you please raise your hands if you support a team A for gig economy. Right. Thank you. It's like uh assembly. A pole A pole among the Please, please, wait. >> Sir, just one question. I All the professors who are traditionally employed and are under the you know protection of Indian government have raised their hands for gig economy, which I find very odd and weird. All the lawyers >> Sir, I hope the debate is over. >> Or else I will also speak. Yeah. >> It's over. See, I am from a government college, that is aided college. I know how the how both the systems combine together and work and bring out the result. So, though our day college belongs to the government unit. And the SFS unit runs on its own. But the traditional aided college also takes the help of the gig economy teams. We can't avoid that. We could travel only by that. I think uh the person from A3 when she began her argument said the traditional employment only be the future of work. From where does it come, the only? The word only. So, I think uh she has some intuition in her that only the traditional workforce or uh the type of work job whichever you call has uh the power to pull on. You have to look at a larger spectrum. How an institution works. How a government runs. Now let's uh work on that. That guy is not alone. Government got to Let it go let That guy is not alone. Government got to This morning also I was discussing with my students in my class. Which country lost more lives during the Corona period? Then they said it's No, which country? Huh? Somebody says, yes, it's Italy. What's the reason for that? What's the real reason for that? No, they had submitted the entire health system to the private sector. All of them closed the hospitals and literally ran away. Whereas in India though we have our own limitations we survived. We survived and in fact Tamil Nadu did the best out of it. So you need first of all you need the accountability. Someone said accountability and also the security for the employee. That is very important. You can't rule a rule out gig economy. See I think madam may remember uh some 12 years back both madam and uh Shankar sir spoke to me regarding the payment procedures of UGC. And I gave them the information and based on that they fixed up the salary for our members of faculty. I know that. They took took it up very seriously and that made Shankar Academy stay as the number one South Indian Academy. See I started my career 18 years back here in Shankar Academy. I see many of our youngsters wherever they have grown up. Some of them were doing the work of attendance here. Now they are in a different position. The institution has given them the security and made them learn and transform their life to a different stage, different level. So, in that case you can't write off gig economy from the consumer's point of view. I want to use the word very carefully. From the consumer's point of view uh this may be sounding good. But in a larger spectrum you have to depend mostly on the uh traditional economy, the workforce. Whatever may be. So, from my point of view I support this team. Traditional economy without writing off the other team. It has to be a blend of both. The percentage may vary. That's the only difference. You have to accept the need of gig economy and travel along with them. This is my response to this debate. Now, I think there is a jury to announce select the best speaker in this uh debate and I think uh they will announce. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, let us wait. Thank you for the wonderful opportunity. Thank you all.