Regulating the Platform Economy in India and Australia

Project description

This project will explore the emerging attempts by the State in India and Australia to regulate the Platform economy. It will explore the following strands 1) The global regulatory trajectory in particular the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) model and the Indian response to it, 2) The Equalisation Levy, 3) The grassroots politics of regulation 4) Global and Indian e-retail responses to regulation, 5) Comparative studies of platform regulation in India and Australia. Case studies will be explored in each of the areas. The main objective of this exercise will be come to a larger and more comprehensive understanding of platform regulation, as policy and practice, in the context of national compulsions and global anxieties over the scale and scope of dominant platforms.

The project will generate both local specific and comparative data on attempts to regulate the platform economy in India and Australia and the challenges and opportunities therefor. Using both innovative qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the objective will be to generate both national and comparative data on regulatory trends and projections that focus both on the opportunities and challenges. The project will run from 2020-2024. Students will do a combination of fieldwork and desk work while being expected to also contribute to writing journal-based and other articles, present findings at conferences and collaboratively build with supervisors a body of knowledge that is both practical and that contributes to policy building.

Outcomes

1. Capacity building/strengthening student research experience in issues related to the regulation of the platform economy in India and Australia.
2. The generation of textured, practical data on regulation that will of use in policy making and contribute to knowledge building.
3. Publication of monographs with the OUP, Sage and/or Routledge.
4. Journal articles in New Media & Society, Media, Culture & Society. Economic and Political Weekly.

Essential capabilities

Ability to think outside the box, Good English language skills.

Desireable capabilities

Commitment, Enthusiasm for the project.

Expected qualifications (Course/Degrees etc.)

MA, Honours.

Candidate Discipline

Management Studies, Sociology, Media and Communication Studies, Policy Studies.