Blinkit entered 2026 with a gig worker problem on its delivery platter. On New Year’s Eve, hundreds of Blinkit’s delivery partners went on a strike across the country, when demand was at its peak.

Delivery partners have been protesting against the company’s 10-minute delivery model, which they say has been responsible for several road accidents and is mentally taxing. The delivery partners also reportedly demanded an end to Blinkit’s arbitrary incentive policy and raised concerns over its opaque penalty and payout structures.

New Year’s Eve, meant to showcase Eternal-owned Zomato and Blinkit’s prowess during one of the busiest days of the year, instead brought to the fore the tensions with its workers.

But before the day’s end, Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal took on critics, claiming Blinkit had hit record high metrics on New Year’s Eve and even went to great lengths to defend Blinkit, its policies for gig workers, and the net positive impact of the gig economy.

Workers and labour unions, however, countered with their own math and arguments. As the debate gained steam online, the protest highlighted a fault line in India’s quick commerce boom, which is not just about Blinkit, but yet Blinkit finds itself at the centre of it.

Is a win-win situation even possible in quick commerce? Let’s find out in this week’s edition of The Outline.

In Defence Of Gig Economy

Despite the strike, Goyal said Blinkit and Zomato delivered a record 75 Lakh orders to 63 Lakh users through a network of 4.5 Lakh delivery executives.

“The number of orders per minute is higher than any other day in our history,” Goyal wrote in a post on X.

Then, he went on to defend Blinkit’s payout structure.

In a series of social media posts, he claimed that average earnings per hour, excluding tips, for a delivery partner on Zomato stood at INR 102 in 2025, up nearly 11% from INR 92 in 2024.

According to him, delivery partners on the platform earn a net average of INR 21,000 per month for working 10 hours a day and 26 days a month.

“Demanding........

© Inc42