‘Struck by impact of AI on people’s lives in India,’ says Satya Nadella; highlights partnership with labour ministry

NEW DELHI: Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satya Nadella said artificial intelligence (AI) is already having a profound impact on people’s lives in India, highlighting the company’s partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Employment, which is helping connect more than 300 million informal workers to better jobs and social security through technology.

A blog post shared by Microsoft CEO highlights that India’s vast e-Shram database— created to bring the country’s informal workforce into the social security net—is rapidly transforming into a powerful engine for jobs, skills and formal-sector mobility, aided by expanding artificial intelligence tools.

Sharing the article, Nadela wrote, “Every time I visit India, I’m struck by how AI is already starting to have a profound impact on people’s lives. A great example is our partnership with the @LabourMinistry to help connect more than 300 million informal workers to better jobs and social security, showing what’s possible when technology empowers people at scale.”

The e-Shram–integrated with the National Career Service (NCS) portal—allows workers to identify skill gaps, chart career pathways using the roadmap manager, and improve their employment prospects through AI-powered tools.

“AI is helping our workers to be part of the formal sector,” said Anjali Rawat, deputy director general of employment at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, mentioned in the blog post.

In India, an informal worker is typically someone employed without a formal contract, regulated working conditions or access to social security benefits like a pension scheme or health insurance. They make up about 82 per cent of the country’s workforce, according to the India Employment Report 2024 by the Institute for Human Development and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Launched in August 2021, e-Shram was initially designed to register an estimated 400 million informal workers so the government could deliver welfare benefits effectively, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic exposed glaring gaps in worker records.

The platform, run by the Ministry of Labour and Employment and built on Microsoft Azure’s cloud infrastructure, has since grown to house data on more than 310 million workers.

It now connects them to 18 welfare schemes ranging from accident insurance and housing benefits to medical subsidies and farming support–contributing to a rise in India’s social protection coverage from 24 per cent in 2019 to 64 per cent in 2025, according to the International Labour Organization. (ANI)