When Ajay Shah and Amit Verma sat down to discuss the gig economy, they articulated a view of work that has shaped an entire generation of Indian thinking about labour markets. It is a view in which markets allocate labour efficiently, voluntary contracts reveal individual preferences, competition disciplines firms, and digital platforms dramatically expand the opportunity set for people who have long been excluded from the formal labour market. It is coherent, internally consistent, and recognisable to anyone who has taken an undergraduate course in economics.