Bengaluru: In a significant step towards securing the rights of gig workers, the Karnataka government has constituted a multi-stakeholder working group to determine the quantum of fee to be levied towards securing the welfare of gig workers.

The working group comprises representatives from trade unions, legal experts, officials from the Department of Labour, and representatives of major e-Commerce companies, as reported by Deccan Herald on Wednesday.

The Karnataka Platform-based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Ordinance proposes levying a 1-5% charge per transaction as welfare fee for the workers. However, it does not stipulate an exact percentage of the welfare fee to be charged for the various kinds of private players operating in this domain such as Swiggy, Zomato, Ola, among others.

The working group will also frame the rules for utilisation of the welfare fund, including guidelines for social security schemes and defining eligibility criteria for gig workers to access these benefits. The development comes amid growing calls for stronger protection mechanisms for gig workers, including by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who has long advocated for such a welfare initiative. The Congress party had included this proposal in its manifesto for the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections.

The state government has already published the draft rules for the ordinance, DH reported. One of the key provisions mandates aggregators to establish internal dispute resolution committees. These bodies will allow terminated gig workers to appeal against their removal within seven days, and require companies to resolve such appeals within 15 days.

In addition, the draft rules call for the creation of a welfare board, comprising gig workers, industry representatives, and government officials. The board will be empowered to set and enforce standards for occupational safety and health in the sector.

To complement the regulatory framework, the government has also formed a second, 13-member group tasked with developing the necessary IT infrastructure. This team will oversee the registration of both gig workers and aggregators, and will implement measures for grievance redressal.

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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.

The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.

Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.

What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.

"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,

which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.

"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.

"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.

"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.

In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.

The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.

With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.

Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).