New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- India's ministry of labour and employment notified Social Security Rules, 2026, in May and has since moved towards the operationalization of this framework for gig and platform workers, including mandatory onboarding of aggregators and workers on the e-Shram portal and penalties for delayed contributions.

As rule implementation begins, a significant policy challenge has emerged that concerns the code's turnover-linked contribution framework, which can create substantially different liabilities for platforms with different business and revenue-recognition models.

The reform of labour rules is an important step towards extending statutory social security beyond the traditional employer-employee relationship. However,...