Empowering India's workforce

In the modern era of digital society, e-governance has brought the government closer to the citizens.

- V ANANTHA NAGESWARAN

By leveraging technology, the government is redefining and re-engineering the delivery of services in many areas, including employment growth and workers' social security. Processes are becoming more efficient, transparent, and, above all, citizen-centric. Portals of schemes now act as "all-in-one" platforms, facilitating the seamless knowledge flow and benefit mapping across programmes while reducing fraud, manual processes, and administrative burdens. Aadhaar seeding and interlinkage of schemes prevent beneficiary duplication. The interlinked portals further empower workers to access and track benefits, explore employment opportunities, and pursue skill training while enabling employers to tap into a national talent pool, enabling hiring based on skills and experience. Additionally, these portals contribute to building comprehensive national databases of unorganised workers, job seekers, employers, and employment opportunities, allowing policymakers to make data-backed decisions.

This digital transformation is streamlining governance, empowering citizens, and enhancing the reach and impact of welfare efforts.

The National Career Service (NCS) portal is a notable example of this transformation. Launched in 2015, it has played a crucial role in providing employment-related services to over 5.5 crore job seekers. It serves as a "one-stop platform" that connects job seekers with employment opportunities across the country, providing career counselling, job matching, information on internships, apprenticeships, skill courses, etc. Today, with the NCS, one can easily search for jobs by location, through integration with PM Gati Shakti, receive career and job counselling, and even acquire the necessary skills through the Skill India Digital portal—all on a phone or by attending local job fairs.