India’s exuberant e-commerce industry was recently hit by a known unknown, or an existing risk that had been left unattended. Delivery boys associated with two or three companies stopped working, demanding better working conditions — such as toilets in offices or a motorcycle maintenance allowance — and better pay.
This not only led to a predictable pile-up of delivery packages but also focused attention on an industry that’s in news for conflicting reasons: soaring valuations and rapidly multiplying wealth of the founders counteracted by absence of regulatory oversight leading to dodgy governance structures and business practices.