Freelancing is no longer a detour, it is the road
Across India’s tech sector, work is changing shape. Companies are no longer waiting patiently for full-time hires to come through months-long pipelines. They are moving faster, and they are leaning heavily on freelance professionals to do it.Data shows this shift is not temporary. Flexing It reports a 40% rise in tech project engagements year on year, while TeamLease Digital has recorded a 25–30% jump in freelance and gig hiring in 2024-25. These aren’t peripheral roles. They are central to AI deployments, cloud migrations, cybersecurity responses, and urgent product rebuilds.The logic is simple: Permanent hiring takes time, but projects don’t wait. Freelancers arrive with ready-made expertise. No long onboarding, no uncertainty, but just execution.For professionals, the pull is just as strong. Seasoned engineers see freelancing as freedom, control over time, pay, and the kind of work they take on. Mid-career technologists are choosing autonomy over hierarchy. Younger professionals are using freelance projects to see real problems years before they would in traditional roles.This is no longer fringe work. It is a parallel workforce, trusted by companies, depended on by workers, and expanding quietly but steadily.Yet the more this flexibility spreads, the more anxious companies are becoming about what happens beyond the payroll.
The moonlighting backlash has already begun
Alongside the rise in freelancing has come a sharp increase in moonlighting checks. Companies are watching more closely now, sometimes too closely.Background verification firm OnGrid processed 23,000 employment verifications in just the first six months of 2025, nearly matching the total number of 2024. Employment history checks alone flagged 2,900 cases of overlapping roles in 2025, up from 2,201 cases in 2024.The tools are precise, Universal Account Numbers, employment timelines, and PF records. Any overlap is flagged and escalated.Manav Jain, chief business officer at OnGrid, said to TNN that the reasons are layered. Post-pandemic work models made it easier to take on secondary jobs. Economic uncertainty made it tempting. For some, what began as a temporary safety net turned into a habit.AuthBridge’s data reinforces the trend. Five out of every 100 candidates are engaged in dual employment, with nearly 90% of cases coming from IT services, particularly in Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. Some cases stretch credibility, developers working simultaneously at multiple companies, even competitors.The consequences can be severe. In 2022, Wipro chairman Rishad Premji confirmed that 300 employees were fired for working with rival firms while still on Wipro’s rolls. This is the backdrop against which stories like Bhayani’s are unfolding.
A workforce that has moved on
Bhayani ended his post with gratitude, not anger. He thanked Google for two fulfilling stints. He rooted for his team. He said he was excited about what comes next.That calm is telling. India’s tech workforce has already moved forward into freelancing, teaching, parallel careers, and flexible identities. Corporate systems are still catching up.What Bhayani’s exit shows is not defiance, but misalignment. Between how people work now and how work is still regulated. As freelancing expands and moonlighting checks tighten, more professionals will find themselves standing where Bhayani stood, forced to choose between a job they love and a version of themselves they are no longer willing to silence.And that choice, for many, will never feel sweet.
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