Overview
- More than 200,000 delivery riders staged a New Year’s Eve flash strike, pressing for minimum pay, algorithm transparency, and an end to 10-minute targets.
- Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal said operations hit a record 7.5 million orders on Dec. 31 and argued the model is safe, citing 2-km trips at 16 km/h, company-paid insurance, and average earnings of ₹102 per logged-in hour.
- Company figures show uneven worker engagement, with the average Zomato delivery partner working 38 days in a year and only 2.3% working more than 250 days.
- Policymakers are advancing gig-worker protections, including proposed national registration and eligibility thresholds, and Karnataka is weighing a 1%–1.5% per-transaction welfare fee.
- Investor nerves and safety concerns are mounting, with Swiggy and Eternal shares down about 20% since mid-October and reports linking ultra-fast targets to avoidable accidents.