India, Nov. 22 -- In a major reform, the Union government yesterday notified all four labour codes, which officially introduce new protections for India's gig workers. The new rules will come into effect immediately.

Rationalising India's 29 existing labour laws, the new norms, for the first time, officially recognise and define gig workers, platform workers and aggregators. With this, online platforms have now come under the ambit of the country's labour laws.

Not just this, the new laws also mandate online aggregators and marketplaces, from Swiggy and Zomato to Amazon and Flipkart, to allocate 1-2% of their annual turnover for the welfare of gig workers. This number had been capped at 5% of the amount paid or payable to gig and platfo...