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    Ola, Uber drivers and CAs to help Modi government solve its job math for India

    Synopsis

    Industry estimates show that there could be more than 1 million drivers associated with Ola & Uber while over 350,000 deliver for e-commerce companies.

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    Industry estimates show that there could be more than 1 million drivers associated with Ola and Uber
    NEW DELHI: Ola and Uber drivers, registered professionals such as chartered accountants, company secretaries, medical practitioners and lawyers besides delivery men employed with ecommerce firms could soon be added to country’s employment data as the government adopts a technology-driven, holistic approach to address anomalies in job data.

    Niti Aayog’s big data analytics cell is collating data on drivers with cab aggregators while reaching out to bar councils, the Medical Council of India, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India to get data on annual registrations, two people familiar with the project told ET.

    “We are aiming at a holistic payroll data for the country which will reflect employment numbers beyond the new subscribers of EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) and ESIC (Employees’ State Insurance Corporation),” one of the officials said, adding that the first set of numbers could be out as early as October. “However, we are facing difficulty in sourcing data from these companies which are reluctant to share information for competitive reasons.”

    Another official agreed that the process may take a while. “We have initiated talks (with taxi aggregators) but it will take some time to figure this out and cover them,” he said.

    The move marks a significant shift in strategy on jobs data, which has become a contentious issue after two experts given access to EPFO data that isn’t publicly available said that 7 million jobs will be added this financial year. That was contested by other experts who said counting additions to provident fund subscribers may not provide an accurate picture.

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    Jobless growth and employment generation are key issues ahead of an election year. India’s workforce is currently estimated at 500 million, out of which a little over 10% is in the organised sector.

    Rising Formalisation
    Industry estimates show that there could be more than 1 million drivers associated with Ola and Uber while over 350,000 deliver for e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Grofers among others.

    However, delivery persons are already covered under social security through EPFO and ESIC and hence there could be an overlap when these numbers are collated by Niti Aayog’s data cell. “We are sensitive to the fact that some of these could be covered under some social security organisation,” said the first person cited above. “The idea is to include the ones not covered under any social security scheme to give us an accurate picture.”

    The rising formalisation in the country’s overall workforce has been hailed by staffing firms.

    “Increase in provident fund active subscriber base is an indicator of rapid formalisation of our workforce,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder of TeamLease Services . “Aadhaar linkage and digitisation of EPFO is making it increasingly difficult to avoid social security compliance for the workforce that they deploy.”


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