NEW APPROACHES IN HRM

23 The real issues, however, as far as organizations are concerned lie in accessing Gig economy resources, followed by managing outsourced, contracted and part-time labour, and understanding emerging skills and critical capability gaps. Illustrative Case COVID pandemic is made to order for Gig ecosystem as freelancing can help recover Indian economy Last few years have seen an unprecedented growth of platforms created by technology firms. This has resulted in the creation of new jobs, not only for engineers but also for semi-educated youth as drivers, delivery boys, cooks, packers and others in multiple supply chains. The ecosystem created by these intermittent or short-term employment (largely freelancers), has come to be known as the gig economy. Since the enforcement of nation-wide lockdown in mid-March owing to Covid-19, the Indian economy has come to a grinding halt. While in recent days, in many places, the government has allowed shops, establishments and factories to open up, it has placed a number of restrictions to promote the wellbeing of citizens and workers. Like all other enterprises, gig platforms too are either closed or working under capacity. The pandemic has brought to fore the vulnerability of the migrants who are vital cogs of our agriculture, industrial and service supply and value chains. They work and live under abysmal conditions with neither their wage nor living conditions being decent or assured. While on one hand, the above descriptions suggest a woeful economy, on the other hand, they carry within them many opportunities. And as the pandemic is but a temporary phenomenon, much that will work under it will not be required thereafter. Thus, the situation is made to order for the Gig eco system and it can play a role in the recovery of the Indian economy. The pandemic has resulted in the emergence of new jobs especially related to healthcare such as isolation and quarantine centers, surveillance and monitoring, elderly care and emotional support. Odisha recently announced that it had set up quarantine centers in 7,000 villages. It is expected that managing and servicing these centers would require locally trained persons. Similar infrastructure will be required in entire rural India and possibly every half sq km of urban India. To reduce the workload on the existing healthcare workforce, it is now clear that India needs to at least quintuple its paramedics who could work in short shifts of four-six hours every alternate day. At the same time, it is important for them to maintain their immunity and to keep contributing to the battle against Covid-19 related mortality. Many of these old and new jobs can be