Pratyay Suvarnapathaki and Sneha Nanavati working with Dr. Nimmi Rangaswamy presented papers from their Master’s thesis research at the prestigious SIGCHI –  in the HCI Across Borders HCIxB held at Yokohama Japan from 26 April to 1 May. This year’s theme was Building a Collective Vision for the Future.

Pratyay presented, in-person at the Conference in Yokohama, on Platform Gig Labour and delivery agents. His paper The Boring and The Tedious’: Invisible Labour In India’s Gig-Economy, studies India’s rapidly expanding gig-based food delivery ecosystem, driven by platforms like Swiggy and Zomato, shaped by rapid digital inclusion and persistent structural inequities. Unlike research in the context of the Global North, which frames gig work through a lens of algorithmic exploitation the study reveals a more layered story in India: these platforms provide critical income to marginalized communities, yet trap workers in cycles of invisible labor—waiting, repetitive tasks, and constant negotiation with opaque systems. By centering the voices of delivery workers, we uncover digital discomfort: the daily friction between the app’s tidy interface and the chaos of real-world logistics.

Sneha presented her paper Bridging Data Gaps and Building Knowledge Networks in Indian Football Analytics exploring grassroots football analysts in India creatively navigating infrastructural and institutional limitations through informal peer-driven knowledge networks, frugal innovation, and decentralized learning communities. Drawing on digital ethnography and interviews, the work also proposed HCI interventions such as decentralised mentorship platforms and frugal analytics toolkits to strengthen data-driven decision-making in resource-constrained settings.

 Homepage: https://chi2025.acm.org/ , ”https://hcixb.org/events/hcixb-at-chi-2025-building-a-collective-vision-for-the-future/

April 2025