Building Inclusive Societies with AI
20 Feb 2026 11:00h - 12:00h
Building Inclusive Societies with AI
Summary
The panel, comprising leaders from industry, development and government, convened to examine systemic obstacles facing India’s informal workforce and possible digital-enabled interventions [1-4][5-10][11-20][21-22]. Romal Shetty identified five recurring roadblocks: lack of discovery and trust, insufficient steady demand, delayed or unfair payment, inadequate upskilling, and limited access to social protection [26-31].
Arundhati Bhattacharya argued that a nationwide digital marketplace is essential to make workers’ credentials visible, match them with local opportunities, and provide verifiable upskilling certifications [34-37]. She stressed that payment delays plague even MSMEs and large corporates, and that only a digital platform can create an audit trail to enforce accountability [38-44]. She also warned that reports without a designated execution authority will remain ineffective, calling for a body that can implement and monitor recommendations [46-51].
Manisha Verma outlined Maharashtra’s newly created SEED department, which oversees more than a thousand ITIs, a state board for vocational accreditation, a public skills university, and a dedicated innovation society to foster skilling and inclusion of vulnerable groups such as prisoners, persons with disabilities and tribal communities [57-77]. She highlighted partnerships with industry, including PPP models that hand over ITI management to anchor firms, short-term evening courses, and collaborations such as Mahindra Tractors training that achieved 100 % placement in Garchiroli [274-285].
Aditya Natraj emphasized that the bottom quartile-over 200 million people, many women married before 18-remains disconnected from markets, with only 40 % of families having a member with six years of education, making productivity gains dependent on addressing these structural gaps [84-110][112]. He illustrated that simple equipment upgrades, like replacing stone-age bamboo tools, can dramatically improve product quality without high-tech solutions [129-135]. He further argued that aggregating blue-collar workers through models such as FabIndia, farmer cooperatives, or rating platforms is crucial for quality assurance and for leveraging government schemes like NRLM and SRLM [188-215].
Discussing behavioral barriers, Aditya described four user profiles among ASHA health workers-from non-phone users to tech-savvy youths-and stressed the need to tailor digitisation programmes to these distinct groups rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach [306-322]. Across the discussion, participants concurred that digital platforms, government stewardship, and industry partnerships must be coordinated to create accountability, upskill workers, and unlock market access for the informal sector [34-37][57-77][120-136][274-285][188-215]. The panel concluded that a unified execution framework, supported by targeted technology and inclusive policies, is essential to transform India’s informal economy and realise its latent employment potential [46-51][324-328].
Keypoints
Major discussion points
– Digital platforms are essential to solve the systemic road-blocks faced by informal workers (discovery, steady demand, timely payment, upskilling, and protection). Arundhati stresses that a “digital way” is the only viable solution for a populous nation, describing a marketplace for credentials, a verifiable up-skilling system, and a digital payment trail that creates accountability [34-44]. She also questions who will be responsible for executing the recommendations in the many reports that have been produced [46-51].
– Government-led skilling, vocational education, and social-inclusion programmes form the backbone of the response. Manisha outlines the newly created Department of Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, its oversight of 1,000+ ITIs, the state board for accreditation, the public State Skills University, and targeted programmes for prisoners, persons with disabilities, women and tribal communities [57-77]. She later adds a public-private partnership model that hands over ITI management to industry for curriculum design and apprenticeship [274-279].
– Aggregating informal workers and standardising quality are critical for market access and productivity gains. Aditya explains that unlike the already-aggregated white-collar sector, blue-collar workers lack a mechanism for consumers to assess quality, and he describes several aggregation models (FabIndia-type, cooperative-type like Amul/Seva, and rating-platforms such as UrbanClap) that can improve incentives and enable technology deployment [188-204]. He further points to the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and State-level equivalents as key aggregation vehicles [209-215].
– Behavioural and adoption barriers must be addressed through differentiated, context-specific interventions. Using the example of ASHA health workers, Aditya shows that technology adoption varies across four age-and-skill cohorts, from workers with no phone experience to young, smartphone-savvy users, and argues that “one size fits all” programmes fail [295-322].
– Tailored, persona-based solutions and strong multi-stakeholder coordination are needed to avoid generic, ineffective policies. Romal highlights that different worker personas (cultivators, artisans, textile workers, etc.) face distinct challenges, and Arundhati reinforces that “there cannot be a cookie-cutter solution” and that the government must enable an ecosystem that supports each vertical [115-118][120-126].
Overall purpose / goal of the discussion
The panel convened representatives from industry, the development sector, and government to diagnose the chronic challenges of India’s informal workforce, evaluate existing interventions, and chart concrete, accountable actions-particularly digital and skilling-focused strategies-that can be implemented over the next 12-18 months to boost productivity, inclusion, and livelihoods.
Overall tone and its evolution
– The conversation opens with a formal, optimistic tone, emphasizing the privilege of a diverse panel and the promise of collaborative solutions [1-4][22-24].
– It shifts to a critical, problem-focused tone as Arundhati highlights systemic failures (payment delays, lack of execution accountability) and calls for an authority to drive implementation [45-51].
– The discussion then becomes analytical and solution-oriented, with Manisha detailing concrete government programmes and Aditya dissecting aggregation models and behavioural hurdles [57-77][188-204][295-322].
– Towards the end, the tone turns reflective and hopeful, celebrating successful pilot initiatives, sharing inspiring anecdotes, and expressing confidence in multi-stakeholder effort [166-176][324-327].
Overall, the dialogue moves from introductory optimism, through candid critique, into constructive problem-solving, and concludes on an encouraging, forward-looking note.
Speakers
– S. Anjani Kumar
– Area of Expertise: Moderation / Panel facilitation
– Role / Title: Moderator/Host (introduced the panel)
– Manisha Verma
– Area of Expertise: Government policy, skills development, social inclusion
– Role / Title: Additional Chief Secretary, SEEID (Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation), Maharashtra; IAS officer, 1993 batch [S2]
– Arundhati Bhattacharya
– Area of Expertise: Technology leadership, responsible AI, inclusive digital adoption
– Role / Title: Chairperson and CEO, Salesforce India; former Chairperson, State Bank of India; Padma Shri awardee
– Aditya Natraj
– Area of Expertise: Education reform, community-led development, poverty alleviation
– Role / Title: CEO, Pyramid Foundation; Founder, Kaivalya Education Foundation and Pyramid School of Leadership [S7]
– Romal Shetty
– Area of Expertise: Management consulting, workforce productivity, digital transformation
– Role / Title: CEO, Deloitte South Asia; Moderator of the panel [S8]
Additional speakers:
– None (all speaking participants are covered in the list above).
The session opened with S. Anjani Kumar introducing a short video on the informal sector before welcoming a three-pronged panel that represented industry, the development sector and government [1-4]. The first panelist was Ms Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and CEO of Salesforce India, a Padma Shri award-winner and recognised leader in responsible AI and public-private collaboration [5-10]. The development side was represented by Mr Aditya Natraj, CEO of the Pyramid Foundation and an Ashoka Fellow [11-16], while the government was represented by Ms Manisha Verma, Additional Chief Secretary of Maharashtra’s SEED department, a senior IAS officer with a record of drafting major social legislation [17-20]. The moderator, Romal Shetty, CEO of Deloitte South Asia, introduced the panel and framed each round of questioning [21-24].
Romal Shetty summarised the study’s findings, identifying five systemic roadblocks for informal workers: (1) limited discovery and trust, (2) insufficient and irregular demand, (3) delayed or unfair payments, (4) constrained upskilling opportunities, and (5) exclusion from social-protection schemes [26-31]. He asked the panel which of these issues should be prioritised over the next 12-18 months.
Arundhati Bhattacharya argued that, given India’s population size, a digital-first approach is the only viable solution [34-36]. She described a nationwide marketplace where workers could upload credentials, view local job opportunities and obtain verifiable upskilling certificates [34-37]. She noted that payment delays affect not only blue-collar workers but also MSMEs, large corporates and government agencies, and that a digital platform would create an immutable audit trail to enforce accountability [38-44]. Bhattacharya called for a clearly designated authority to own implementation of the platform, warning that without such accountability recommendations remain untracked [45-51].
Manisha Verma outlined Maharashtra’s newly created Department of Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (SEED), which now oversees more than a thousand ITIs, a state board that accredits private training providers, and the public Ratan Tata State Skills University [57-66][72-73]. She highlighted short-term skilling programmes for vulnerable groups-including prisoners, persons with disabilities, women and tribal communities-to ensure social inclusion [74-77]. Verma also described a public-private partnership (PPP) policy that hands over ITI management, curriculum design and faculty recruitment to industry anchor partners for ten to twenty years, aligning with the national PM SETU scheme [274-279]. Additional initiatives include (a) opening ITI programmes to non-ITI students in the evenings to optimise infrastructure utilisation, and (b) a partnership with Mahindra Tractors in Garchiroli that delivered a certified training batch with 100 % placement for tribal students [240-270].
Aditya Natraj shifted the focus to the “bottom quartile” of India’s population, noting that over 200 million people remain in poverty, with 36 % of women in the eastern states marrying before the age of 18 and 40 % of poor families having no member with six years of schooling [84-110][112]. He argued that productivity gaps are rooted in structural exclusion rather than mere skill deficits, and that simple, low-tech interventions-such as replacing stone-age bamboo tools with modestly improved equipment-can dramatically raise product quality and marketability [129-135]. Natraj emphasized that any digital solution must first build on existing aggregation models (e.g., FabIndia, Amul/Seva, Urban Clap) to ensure quality assurance and create market incentives for technology deployment [188-215].
Both panelists highlighted the importance of aggregation, but Bhattacharya emphasized building a unified digital marketplace as the primary vehicle, whereas Natraj stressed that any digital solution must first leverage pre-existing aggregation mechanisms to guarantee quality and consumer confidence [34-37][188-209].
Regarding execution, Bhattacharya called for a clearly designated authority to own the platform’s implementation, while Verma described the government’s role as a catalyst that creates enabling policies (e.g., the PPP framework, PM SETU) and partners with industry for execution. Both agree on the need for strong execution, differing only on the preferred mechanism-centralised authority versus facilitative partnership [45-51][274-279].
Addressing behavioural barriers, Natraj presented a typology of ASHA health workers to illustrate technology-adoption diversity: (1) workers over 50 with no phone experience; (2) users of basic “dumb” phones; (3) smartphone owners who use devices only for entertainment; and (4) young, tech-savvy workers who already blend digital tools with income-generating activities [294-322]. He argued that one-size-fits-all digital programmes would miss three-quarters of the target audience, and that interventions must be tailored to each cohort’s skill level and comfort with technology [295-318].
Romal Shetty reinforced the need for persona-specific design, noting that cultivators, artisans, textile workers and migrant labourers each face distinct challenges such as volatility, market access, skill gaps and income insecurity [114-119]. Bhattacharya echoed this, stating that while fundamental issues like access, health and literacy must be addressed early, solutions should be vertical-specific and supported by government-enabled ecosystems [120-126].
Key takeaways
1. A digital platform is central to solving discovery, credential verification, demand matching and payment traceability, and must be complemented by sector-specific aggregation models.
2. Government agencies-exemplified by Maharashtra’s SEED department-must lead inclusive skill development, accreditation and programmes for vulnerable groups, while also acting as catalysts for PPP-driven execution.
3. Productivity gaps stem largely from the exclusion of the bottom quartile; targeted, gender-sensitive and tribal-focused interventions are required.
4. Technology should augment, not replace, informal workers; upskilling should be delivered via verifiable digital certifications.
5. Public-private partnerships and the startup ecosystem can drive socially impactful innovations and job creation.
6. Digital adoption must be segmented according to user cohorts, with tailored training for each ASHA typology.
7. An accountable execution authority-whether a dedicated government body or a facilitative partnership framework-is essential to move from recommendation to action [34-44][57-77][84-110][112-135][188-215][294-322][45-51].
Proposed actions include establishing a lead agency to implement the nationwide digital marketplace, scaling Maharashtra’s PPP model for ITI management, expanding the “Startup Week” and direct work-order awards to nurture socially-impactful ventures, leveraging NRLM/SRLM for systematic aggregation of blue-collar workers, and designing tiered digital-adoption training that addresses the four identified ASHA cohorts [45-51][274-279][188-215][294-322]. Unresolved issues remain around the precise governance and funding structure for the platform, safeguards to ensure AI augments rather than displaces workers, and metrics for measuring the impact of skilling programmes on the bottom quartile [45-51][274-279][188-215][294-322].
In closing, all participants reaffirmed that multi-stakeholder collaboration-bringing together industry, development organisations and government-is indispensable for transforming India’s informal economy. While consensus existed on the goals of digital inclusion, skill development and accountable execution, the discussion highlighted moderate differences on the preferred aggregation mechanism and the balance between government-led versus industry-led execution. The panel concluded on an optimistic note, expressing confidence that coordinated, sector-specific, and accountable interventions can unlock the latent employment potential of India’s informal sector [4][23-24][120-124][324-328].
show a video which will give you context of what the informal sector is, what are some of the interventions that can be taken before I call the esteemed panel to have a discussion on the topic. So we are privileged to have a panel. We are privileged to have a panel today, which represents industry, the development sector, and the government. You know, all of the ecosystem has to come together to solve for this problem. So may I now invite my first panelist, Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson. And CEO, Salesforce India. Thank you. She is the recipient of the Padmashri, India’s fourth highest civilian award, and has frequently been featured on Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Powerful Women and Fortune’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders list.
She is a strong advocate of responsible AI, inclusive technological adoption, and public -private collaboration for national growth. She is instrumental in expanding India’s digital economy while embedding ethics, governance, and sustainability into technology ecosystems. Thank you, ma ‘am, for joining us today. Representing the development sector, we have the pleasure of inviting Mr. Aditya Natraj, the CEO of Pyramid Foundation. He’s a prominent education reform leader and also the founder of Kaivalya Education Foundation and the Pyramid School of Leadership. He’s over 20. He has over 20 years of experience in the development sector, including a significant tenure with… driving volunteer -led literacy campaigns in rural India. He’s been recognized as an Ashoka Fellow, an Echoing Green Fellow, and Aspen India Fellow.
He’s also the recipient of Time’s Now Amazing Indian Award in Education. Thank you, Aditya, for joining us. On the government side, again, I’m privileged to request Ms. Manisha Verma, Additional Chief Secretary, SEEID, Maharashtra. She’s a 1993 batch IAS officer who has contributed to drafting transformative regulations in India, like the National Food Security Act, the Forest Rights Act, the National Food Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Right to Education, Magnera, and others. She’s been felicitated by the Honorable President, the Honorable Prime Minister, Niti Ayog, Honorable Governor, and Honorable Chief Minister for various initiatives, and is also a recipient of Maharashtra Foundation Award for Outstanding Policy. Thank you, ma ‘am, for joining us. And to kick us off, I’m delighted to welcome Romul Chetty, CEO of Deloitte South Asia, to
Thank you so much, Roy. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and always a privilege to have a wonderful panel here. So maybe I’ll kick off first with you, Arundhati, to start with. As you know, when we did our study, obviously you and Arundhati were significant contributors to that study. We’ve seen that the informal workforce basically faces about five really systemic roadblocks. One is being discovered and trusted. Second is getting some steady demand. Third is getting fair and timely payment. Then upskilling, that sort of translates into higher productivity. And, of course, accessing protections, insurance and others. So how do you use? How do you see these challenges playing out in the future? and what or which of it must be prioritized in the next 12 to 18 months?
So given the fact that ours is a very populous nation, I don’t think we have a way other than a digital way of addressing these solutions. In the sense that you might have a worker, say a person who works as a plumber, who might be really, really good at his job and there might be very good opportunities in his village or in the village next to his, but he has no idea that it exists. So this lack of knowledge is not something that you can manage to do away with unless you have some kind of a marketplace where people can put in not only their credentials and their experience, but also be able to access the opportunities that are there for their kinds of jobs.
That’s one piece. The second piece is that unless and until we put all of… these people together we would also not understand what is the upskilling that is required for such people because more and more as days go by we are realizing that everything is changing all of the technology is changing and the change in technology is such that requires people to be further upskilled now how do you get that upskilling how do you ensure that you have a verifiable certification that you have gone through that upskilling again you have got to come back to the digital area third is regarding getting payment on time as you said this is something by the way which is a very big problem across India and it does not only impact your the blue -collar workers it impacts even the MSMEs and the SMEs and sadly enough I would say it is the big corporates that are the worst at this including the government means I cannot not include the government over there because getting payments on time in India is something that is not considered to be at all important It is one of the things that you do last.
You have to do it. So you do it at some point of time. And this is not something that speaks well for us as a country. It really adds to the difficulty in doing business because you’re not funding people the moment that they need to be funded in. And there has to be an accountability for all of this, which unless if you use a digital platform, there is no footprint. There is no footprint about the delays that are taking place unless you put a digital platform to this. So I think, you know, in the report that we put out together, and I think there were other people, especially your people, Deloitte people who did a lot of work on this, who actually suggested a platform where all of these things could be comprehensively addressed.
Now, I was just asking Romil before coming in over here that India is great at putting out fantastic reports. At the end of the reports, who is charged with the execution? Who is really accountable that if it doesn’t get executed, there is a downside to it? We have no such downsides. We have suggestions, we have reports, and then we don’t have a person who is charged with the execution. I think it’s time for all of us to understand that reports are great, suggestions are fantastic, but there has to be an authority that will take charge of this, will run with it, and be accountable for actually implementing it. Because there are some really, really good suggestions over there that need to be implemented.
Thank you, Arundhati, and you know why she was the SBI chairperson, because she’s got a strong mind of her own, and always willing to challenge the status quo, which I think in her own life, as well as of course in the various positions that she’s held. Thank you, Arundhati. So Manisha, a question to you now, and this is really about Maharashtra, and obviously, could you sort of share an overview of the work, the work that’s being undertaken by your department? for the benefit of all the delegates here. And how is it working towards enhancing human capital and social inclusion?
So first of all, thank you so much for having me here. I’m looking forward for a great dialogue with this esteemed panel members as well as all of you. I head the Department of Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation. Innovation, that is why it is written SEED, so it’s not a very common kind of a department. This is a newly constituted department in Maharashtra. And to put it simply, it is overseeing the entire vocational education spectrum. So there is a thousand plus institutes, ITIs, government, and private, which are the cutting edge. You know, they are the cradle of creating skilled workforce for the industries, manufacturing, and service sector, but mainly the manufacturing. And so all the ITIs are under the department oversight.
But we are also looking at short term skilling programs through our Maharashtra State Skilling Society. So all the government of India programs and the state budget resources for skilling. Then we have a state board of vocational education and training. So if you are a private provider of skill training, then the accreditation and recognition of the courses is done by our state board. And affiliation is also given because today you know that there is a lot of duping of people, ordinary people. There is no information as to whether the courses which are given in the market are actually accredited or have a value. So this body does the independent assessment of the training institutes and gives affiliation and recognition.
And then to complete the spectrum of because you know that the students from, ITIs or from people who are doing vocational education, they might have aspirations. for higher education and independently also. So we recently set up a public state skills university, Ratan Tata State Skills University in Maharashtra. So that is also doing pretty well now, I mean, in its infant stages. And then we have a Maharashtra State Innovation Society, which is under my department, which is looking at promotion of startups and incubators. So this is a whole spectrum of the work that we are doing. But not to miss out the vulnerable groups for social inclusion, we are also partnering with agencies to do skilling for jail inmates, prisoners in jail, people with disabilities, women, tribal areas and all.
So that in brief is the work that we are doing. Thank you.
Thank you, Manisha. Aditya, one of our core insights from our study was that we are working with the government that productivity gaps often come from… sort of inefficient workflows and tooling deficit rather than any work effort. So as we look to increase productivity 10x to really realize Vixit Bharat aspirations, what guardrails do you think should be in place so that technology augments workers, improves their safety and earnings, and does not really replace them altogether?
Yeah. So thank you very much for having me on this panel. It was great fun to be part of the committee at Niti Ayog as well, which put this together. Thanks to Deloitte’s efforts. I think when we’re talking about this informal labor force, we’re all imagining this electrician who’s coming to our house, right? And so we’re imagining an upgrade of that. We at the Pyramal Foundation are working with the bottom quartile of India. Largely the top quartile is sitting in this room and driving the growth. The next quartile sort of supports that growth by being drivers, electricians, plumbers. The next quartile is just about surviving. And the fourth quartile, honestly, first of all, you have to tune into to even understand how badly off there are.
There are still, as per official statistics, over 200 million people in India in poverty, right? So the areas where we focus, which are the five eastern states, for example, I mean, so when you’re talking about productivity deficit, just I’ll give you a few statistics, right, because we’re imagining this is a plumber who’s coming into my house and how do I increase this thing? But what about the women? 50 % of India is women, right? And the states where we work with Jharkhand, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, these states, today, the number is at 36 % of women getting married below the age of 18. What is going to be my productivity gap? I got married before the age of 18. My productivity is measured by how fast I produce the first child and the second child.
And all my energy is going into just taking care of children. What is AI going to do for this girl who, by the age of 20, has two children and at home? What is it going to do for the tribal? I’m going to be able to do it for the next 10 years. who’s still in the Dandakaranya forest in South Chhattisgarh. So that group of people has lower growth rate than the median of India. As it is, they were lower and they have lower growth rate. So really increasing productivity for that group, I think, is going to be key because it’s not about taking the top quartile to $29 ,000, right? That is going to happen or it’s going to happen because there are automatic mechanisms in place in the market to incentivize that productivity gain.
The bottom quartile is not yet plugged into the market, right? These are the 70 million people who are in poverty in these five states. Out of them, the statistic is not having 40 % of those families don’t have even one person who has had six years of education in the family. Six years, we’re not talking about 10th standard. So a lot of our programs are designed on, okay, 10th standard, after that you’re going to do ITI, you’re going to do this thing. So this bottom quartile really needs, I think productivity gains are going to come by us unknowingly. Understanding why the bottom quartile… is not involved in the market and what do we need to do three times, four times as hard so that they’re not pulling the median of India down.
I mean, and, you know, as consultants, when we look at these reports, and I can tell you from the NITI one was, I think these kind of inputs, because it’s very easy sometimes just to be far off and sort of give recommendation, but when you realize the nitty -gritties as well, well, I think you realize that there have to be different solutions, and I think this report was where really different sets of people came together to contribute. Arundhati, back to you in terms of, you know, we created this persona -led, you know, the carpenter, the, you know, the cultivator, and we chose this because challenges differ, right? So cultivators face sort of volatility and information gaps.
Artisan face sort of market access. Middlemen, dependents. Textile workers face skills and technology gaps, and trade workers, of course, face income insecurity. Migration, of course, pressure. as well. So how do you balance a centralized approach while ensuring each person’s unique challenge are solved for?
So basically again you know there cannot be a cookie cutter solution to all of this because the persuasions are so different the challenges are so different you necessarily need to solve for people in different ways. There are certain fundamental issues that bother all of these whether it’s an issue of access, issue of health issue of you know basic understanding and literacy these are all basic issues that need to get fixed at a very low level in the sense at a very early level in their lives. But if you are looking beyond that and if you are looking at vertical wise the different kinds of people and the different ecosystems that they work for you necessarily will have to come up with different solutions and again here I think this is where the stakeholder which is the major stakeholder, which is the government, the government has a role to play.
Because it is the government that is going to enable the ecosystem to help these people to grow. For them to grow on their own, like was being said by him, the upper quartile people can help themselves. The people who are absolutely at the lower quartile, they actually need help. And I remember one incident where, you know, we used to run this Youth for India program in State Bank of India. Where we had people taking a gap year, coming and serving in the villages. Now one such guy was serving in one of these villages of Dang tribals, who work with bamboo. And he discovered that the equipments that they were working the bamboo with were basically stone age equipments.
Literally stone age equipments. Now just by changing the nature of the equipments that they were working with, and again nothing very fancy. Nothing with technology or AI. And they were working with bamboo. But just changing those equipments improved the quality of the product so much that it had a much better purchase in the market. So, you know, solutions may be something that’s very simple, but it is something that has to be innovated there by actually getting knowledge of what really is holding them back. So I think, again, this is something that needs a lot of work and it needs a lot of work by people at that place, which, again, has to be partly the government.
And in fact, the platform that the committee recommended in some sense was to also help to Uberize, to create demand, to also build skills also. So as simple as long as you have a simple phone, you could actually use it. So I think that was actually done as well. So, Manisha, coming to the sort of the startup ecosystem and, you know, and obviously Maharashtra has been doing phenomenally well in the startup ecosystem. So could you share how you’re driving societal impact through this startup? Ecosystem.
I think honestly startup ecosystem is something that is organically grown and government should not be taken too much credit. I was just sharing with Arundhati ji before and we were entering that, you know, some things are on autopilot and government should just catalyze or facilitate and not obstruct the growth, I think that is. But nevertheless, I would like to say that we have been trying from the Maharashtra government side to really kind of catalyze this ecosystem which is there in Maharashtra. You know, Maharashtra has 35 ,000, nearly 35 ,000 startups currently registered by DPIIT and it is the leading state. And some of the things that we have been doing actually is to create this, get this culture penetrated across the state.
Initially, we saw that their startups were primarily centered around Mumbai because of the ecosystem and Pune. But today, I’m happy to share that every district in Maharashtra, including Garchiroli, has minimum of 25 startups registered. So can you imagine that? So we’ve tried to do it through multiple ways, like having hackathons, grant challenges, startup yatras, involving the college students. And the rural areas as much, creating district level committees, you know, led by collector, but having an entire ecosystem of stakeholders, including principals, ITIs, the district industries officers, the MSME clusters. Then we also give some support of financial because not all startups are capable of prototyping and then, you know, getting the quality testing done. So we’ve done that.
We do some reimbursement for IPR. for domestic patents or, you know, international patents. We are helping them to obtain quality testing and certification. But a very unique experiment that we have done, I think, and which we can, you know, take genuine credit of, is our very unique program called Startup Week. We invite startups from across the country. We get nearly close to 3 ,000 entries every year. And they are shortlisted by an independent jury of domain experts, VCs. And then we have their pitching done before second round of independent jury. Now, these are not startups. You know, we are looking at startups and their technologies and innovations, which have a large social impact. So just to give you an example, the sectors are actually clean energy, mobility, agriculture, health, education.
And FinTech, these are the kind of… sector. So I’m happy to share some examples like there was a startup and then we give them as awards, direct work orders up to 25 lakhs. In recently, we have entries from 15 to 25. So otherwise, startups are stuck for procurement policies of the government. They are not able to compete with the tender systems that are there. So we give them a direct work orders as winning price. And then we connect them with the domain departments to rule out their innovations. And that has been very helpful for our startups to gain visibility and even gain international markets and investors. So some of our startups have really grown up like this Sagar Defense.
Now today, it’s called Sagar Defense. We started with their, you know, now today, their technology has been upgraded for marine surveillance and Indian Navy, has also placed orders and they’ve created a manufacturing plant near NASIG. We have new docs recently. It was our winner from IIT and other people who have created a very beautiful home diagnostic app. On phone you can have more than 30 health parameters at a very low cost. We have which has done the entire thing of menstrual hygiene management and disposal of sanitary pads in a sustainable way. We did their pilots in Mantralay itself to do the, you know, see the proof of concept and give them the work order. So we have, I think it is new motors.
I remember very interesting for physically challenged people that their wheelchair converts into a battery operated two wheeler. disabled person. So I can cite a lot of examples and I would say even in the areas of agriculture and clean energy. So these are kind of some efforts that we have been doing and hopefully we’ll take it to the next level with the help of such experts.
I think it’s fantastic work and on a lighter note, of course, Manisha ji, we also struggle on the tender side. So maybe So Aditya, I mean from your experiences, where do digital or sort of AI led interventions for the informal force sort of break down and what are some of the learnings from the past? Like you said, you bucketed into the four categories as well.
So we’ve done a lot of digitization work. In fact, we’ve showcased it even at the expo and we work with with the government to digitize government health systems, digitize government education systems, agri, water, any space digitization normally adds value. But here when we are talking about the informal labor force, I think we have to look at the mental model here. When we are talking about white collar workers, right, like Deloitte or a lawyer firm, they got aggregated more than 40, 50 years ago. If you went back 100 years ago, you had an individual chartered accountant, an individual lawyer, an individual banker, or an individual consultant. Now you have firms. Now as soon as you’ve aggregated, you get lots of benefits because you get specialization, and then you can reintegrate to offer a more complex service.
Or you get more skill capability growth for each person. You can get quality standards. The customer knows what he’s buying. So in the white collar workforce, this has already happened. In the blue collar workforce, on the other hand, tell me where you will go for quality of election. electrician right you’ll end up asking your neighbors what about a carpenter tailor we’ve not yet organized the blue collar workforce in a way in which the customer can choose quality predictably right as an urban consumer i will face more than 80 brands a day even my salt is branded it’s catch you walk into a village today nothing is branded right so the need to aggregate is very critical to improve quality of service and this is what we tried with our farmer produce organizations and how they could improve but if you see there are multiple models for this aggregation right you can have the fab india type model right the fab india’s and the uh type model where it’s a private sector fab india high design high designs help the entire supply chain in leather fab india helped in the entire textile supply chain right you can go in that private sector type model The second model is that you can actually go in the Amul and the Seva model, which the firm itself is owned by the farmers.
Today, when I buy Amul milk, 90 % of what I pay goes back to the farmer. When you buy Nestle milk, it doesn’t go back to the farmer. So when you buy Seva, when you buy Lijat Papad, 90 % is going back to the last person because it’s organized as a cooperative. And the third is then you’ve got the Urban Clap model, which is saying, OK, I will certify the person and he’s got a 4 .5 rating. So therefore, you choose him. You choose this physiotherapist. You choose this carpenter. You choose this plumber. All these are aggregating in different ways and distributing incentives in different ways. I think unless we think of but for the artisan who’s 45 years old and doing a traditional Kalamkari, you’re expecting that someone’s going to come and choose this particular piece without having branded that as a whole.
I think actually his productivity is quite high. The problem is his realizations are not that high. What he’s able to realize from the market. It is not as great as the actual craft. his actual understanding of where the design market is going in Paris or in New York or in Delhi is not as high in order to adapt his design. And so the constraints, I think, is about aggregation of these workers, which I think the government’s main program of NRLM, the National Rural Livelihood Mission, and the SRLM, which is, of course, very, very powerful in Maharashtra, Bihar, I think is extremely critical for aggregating workers at various levels in order that then you can improve quality, deploy technology, create incentives, create a common expectation of quality.
Because otherwise, as a consumer, I’m not going to be willing to pay unless I’m sure of a certain quality level.
So I have a last question to each of you for what I request is maybe just a minute or two, a quick one. So Arutati, as part of the study, if you remember, we met about 70 personas. We met 70, we had 70 stories, we had 70 different aspirations. but they all represent a 490 million workforce, 90 % of the country’s workforce. These are numbers, I believe, but I believe the stories matter actually more. And as a reflection, if you could share a persona which stuck with you the most during our exercise.
the mountains, you have the seas, you have culture, you have temples, you have old structures, like you ask for it and it is there. And yet this is one sector where we really haven’t done well. And it’s very difficult to understand why. People in countries with far, far less are doing much, much better. And this also is a very labor -intensive sector. We talk about people not having enough jobs. And why not? Because this is a sector that can provide a lot of jobs. There are so many wonders in this country which we ourselves as Indians have not witnessed. And this, I think, is something that the government needs to take up on a really urgent footing because not everything is going to happen from the private side.
But, of course, the private sector coming in over here in full force, along with the government, should actually mean a great deal to us. because this is also not going to be something that is not going to give us foreign exchange. It will give us foreign exchange. It will give us enough amount of employment. And more than anything else, I think it will showcase what India is all about, which I think is very important. So if you ask me, that was one place that I thought we could do a separate study just on that to see whether we could do something more for that particular segment. And I can tell you she was as passionate then also.
I remember this discussion as well specifically, but it is a fact that hospitality, tourism actually is a force multiplier because it also impacts so many industries, right?
So Manisha, in terms of industry partnerships, so really when it comes to employment, an important ally is industry partnership. What special efforts are there to sort of deepen collaboration between industry and the government for societal impact? A quick question.
Okay, before I go to industry, I just quickly wanted to respond because I remember I was a few years ago tribal department secretary and we used to have a small fund called Nucleus Budget Fund, which was untied. We could do some locally contextualized responses. So I do remember one of my department officers saying, ma ‘am, I want to build homestays in tribal areas. And beyond Nasik, there’s Bhandardhara Falls area and there is fireflies. There is a cluster of tribal villages which have got these fireflies before the monsoon sets in. It’s a beautiful site. I would ask some of you to explore if you haven’t. And then he so I couldn’t I funded that time’s few homestays, which was just one lakh rupee for villages.
I would ask some of you to explore if you haven’t. And then he so I couldn’t I funded that time’s few homestays, which was just one lakh rupee for villages. I would ask some of you to explore if you haven’t. And then he so I couldn’t I funded that time’s few homestays, which was just one lakh rupee for villages. I would ask some of you to explore if you haven’t. And then he so I couldn’t I funded that time’s few homestays, which was just one lakh rupee for villages. I would ask some of you to explore if you haven’t. And then he so I couldn’t I funded that time’s few homestays, which was just one lakh rupee for villages.
iron furniture, one bed and mattress and something. They couldn’t even afford that because they were all small marginal farmers. And I forgot about it. And I did it out of the way because there was no such scheme but I designed it for them because I trusted my officer that he will use it well. And then he said, Ma ‘am, you come. They are doing good business. And three years ago, I had left the department few years ago and I traveled to Bhandardhara area to catch this fireflies. And he said, Ma ‘am, they are reminding you to come to their house and eat. So around from 11 at night till 2 in the morning, I was looking at that tract of fireflies and then I visited that village Hamlet.
She cooked that Jowari, Bhagri and everything. And she was so happy to share with me the lady of the house. Ma ‘am, this is the room. We will take our food. We will give our food to the Maharashtrians. You are giving authentic Maharashtra food. and a lot of people come and stay in my room. So one example, I just got some warm remembrance. And I’m sure there are so many efforts that are happening, but as ma ‘am was saying, we have so much to do in terms of aggregation, a systematic kind of approach to kind of tap the potential of tourism as well as our rich culture and diversity that we have. Coming quickly to industry, we’ve created industry as a major role because we keep talking about industry -aligned courses, matchmaking for the job seeker and job provider, but it is our industries which are the job providers, whether it is small -scale industries, MSMEs, or they are big industry associations or service sector.
So what we have done is actually to modernize curriculum of research. One of our ideas we have started, we have created a PPP policy. public -private partnership in which we are ensuring that if an industry -led anchor partner is there, we will give our ITI management to the industry for 10 years or 20 years. And we will give them freedom to design curriculum, to have expert faculty, and even converge our resources. This is something that Maharashtra did before. Therefore, recently, Government of India has also announced PM Setu scheme, which is akin to this kind of concept of developing ITIs along with industry partnership. But on a regular basis also, we are trying to tap industry expertise for OGT on the job training, apprenticeship programs, you know, advising our institutions, academic institutions.
Another good example, I would just like… to share because it’s a recent one. We have introduced short -term training courses and opened the ITI to non -ITI students in the evening. for optimal utilization. So in the evenings and on, we can have short -term skilling programs. We are looking for partnerships. One good partnership we have done is with Mahindra Tractors in Garchiroli for tribal students again. And we’ve done the first batch of certification in Mahindra Tractors technology and with 100 % placement in Garchiroli. So some
Thank you, Manisha.
But one line, this is not enough. We really need industry to engage very deeply. There are structural kind of issues, but we are really open to partnerships, but I think industry needs to come forward.
Aditya, final question to you. Of course, the Pyramid Foundation has developed, really deep experience in community -led development. mile governance and of course behavioral change. In your view, what behavioral change levers are the most critical to sort of unlock adoption and also trust amongst the informal workers?
You’re asking a question which we spend all our time on and I’m going to try and summarize it in two minutes. Let me give you an example of a very basic technology, right? The government of India has a huge national digitization program for healthcare workers. There are over a million ASHA workers in India who are the last mile delivery for all health services. And ASHA workers still in many states has a manual register in which she fills up the pregnancies. She has 54 different things to track. She has a separate register for pregnancies, separate register for TB, separate register for nutrition, separate register for adolescence. In most states, that was not yet. Now you would imagine, come on, that’s like the easiest thing to automate, right?
Because. It’s a tool. She goes to each home. There’s a geo -tagging, and then you have the database, and then you fill up what’s the latest problem so that her surveys are more efficient. Bihar alone, and we went into Bihar to try to digitize this, and Bihar alone has over 100 ,000 ASHA workers, right? And we thought, hey, this will be done in three months because we had the technology. The point is that technology adoption is a separate skill from the technology, right? And when you think of technology adoption, again, we’re thinking of the white -collar person in this room. When we saw the people who had to adopt this, we saw that they were in four categories.
Category one is people who are over 50, okay, and have never used any technology. She’s not even used a dumb phone. Now, suddenly, you’re asking her on the smartphone to collect her wage. She’s saying, bitya ko dedo, bo kar degi. Okay? So we have to remember that there are people. People are 50 to 75, and they’re in the government workforce as ASHA workers, right? So there’s people who don’t even have dumb phone. That’s about a quarter. the second quartile is people who still have a dumb phone and not a smartphone so they use it for call call ke labar not even sms use it for call and you use it for emergency you’re not using it for work you’re not used to how will you use it for work when i press here what happens where does it go how does that data come back here who’s looking at it these are all the questions going in their mind because of which they say so there is a huge fear of this technology adoption then there’s a third quartile which has smartphones but is not used to using it for business right that is used for you know my sun watches youtube i have prime video all those sort of things but using it for business my business means whatever work i’m doing you know i’m using it for business you’re not used to because and then the top one is typically younger people who are you know young asha workers from 25 to 35 who have a smartphone who are going out who are also selling something on the side also running some site business, they are really smart.
So the adoption depends on the profile of the workers inside and how far they have adopted. And typically we design one size fits all type programs. And there’s a group of people who already knew how to do it. And there’s a group of people who’s never going to do it. And I think this is very critical to really imagine that there is not one India, there are at least four Indias on any dimension. And to first understand that, and then tailor our programs to that, I think all adoption can happen.
Yeah, thank you. I think this is I mean, you can see the wealth of experience, the depth of knowledge, and the willingness to work you can clearly see from industry, from the development sector, from the government. So I think sometimes we feel a bit disheartened of, you know, but whenever we hear stories, and if we see leaders like this, you know that, you know, India is in good hands. So thank you, everyone for such a wonderful panel. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Aditya Natraj provided crucial perspective on India’s bottom quartile, pointing out that over 200 million people remain in poverty, with specific challenges like 36% of women in eastern states marryin…
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EventBut we are also looking at short term skilling programs through our Maharashtra State Skilling Society. So all the government of India programs and the state budget resources for skilling. Then we hav…
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EventReferences a NEETI report studying blue-collar workers including carpenters, plumbers, hospitality workers, and Anganwadi workers
EventContext-specific solutions are essential rather than one-size-fits-all approaches
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EventThe tone throughout is consistently formal, diplomatic, and collaborative. Speakers maintain an optimistic and forward-looking perspective, emphasizing partnership and shared responsibility. The discu…
EventThe overall tone was formal yet optimistic. Speakers acknowledged the serious challenges posed by rapid technological change but expressed confidence in the ability of democratic institutions and mult…
EventThe discussion began with an optimistic, collaborative tone as panelists shared their expertise and perspectives. However, the tone gradually became more realistic and somewhat pessimistic as speakers…
EventThe discussion began with an optimistic, exploratory tone as panelists shared different models and success stories. The tone became more cautionary and analytical in the middle sections when addressin…
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EventThe discussion maintained a consistently professional and collaborative tone throughout. It began with formal introductions and technical explanations, evolved into an enthusiastic presentation of pra…
EventThe discussion maintains a consistently positive and collaborative tone throughout, characterized by gratitude, celebration of achievements, and forward-looking optimism. However, there are moments of…
EventThe tone was consistently optimistic, collaborative, and forward-looking throughout the session. It maintained a formal yet encouraging atmosphere, with speakers expressing confidence in India’s AI po…
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Event“Aditya Natraj highlighted that over 200 million people remain in poverty in India.”
The knowledge base states that more than 200 million people are living in poverty in India, confirming Natraj’s figure [S1].
“Around 80 % of the female workforce in India operates within the informal sector.”
S17 reports that approximately 80 % of women in India work in the informal sector, confirming the claim.
“Arundhati Bhattacharya is a recognized leader in responsible AI and public‑private collaboration.”
S4 lists Bhattacharya as a panelist in an AI summit, providing context for her involvement in responsible AI and multi‑stakeholder discussions.
“Digital platforms can link worker credentials, job opportunities and upskilling certificates, creating an immutable audit trail for payments.”
S83 describes public employment services that link databases on jobseekers and vacancies, illustrating how digital infrastructure can enable comprehensive data trails and improve matching.
“Upskilling opportunities for informal workers are constrained and under‑developed.”
S84 notes that investment in re‑ and upskilling remains under‑developed, adding nuance to the claim about limited upskilling opportunities.
There is strong consensus that addressing informal sector challenges requires a coordinated ecosystem where government provides accountable execution and enabling policies, digital platforms and aggregation models connect workers, interventions are tailored to specific worker categories, and vulnerable groups receive targeted inclusion. Public‑private partnerships and even low‑tech community solutions are recognized as complementary pathways.
High consensus across speakers, indicating a shared understanding that multi‑stakeholder, differentiated, and accountable approaches—combining digital and simple interventions—are essential for advancing informal sector development.
The panel largely concurs on the need for multi‑stakeholder collaboration and upskilling of informal workers. However, substantive disagreements emerge around the preferred mechanism for connecting workers (centralised digital marketplace vs aggregation models), the locus of execution authority (government‑led versus industry‑led PPPs), and the design of digital adoption programmes (uniform platform versus differentiated, user‑specific interventions).
Moderate – while there is consensus on goals, the divergent views on implementation pathways could hinder coordinated action unless a hybrid approach is adopted that integrates aggregation, tailored adoption strategies, and a clear accountable body bridging government and industry.
The discussion was steered by a handful of incisive remarks that moved it beyond a superficial listing of challenges. Arundhati’s call for execution accountability and her low‑tech bamboo example questioned the prevailing tech‑first mindset, while Aditya’s focus on the bottom quartile, aggregation models, and behavioral segmentation exposed deep structural and cultural barriers. Manisha’s micro‑funding anecdote provided a vivid proof‑of‑concept that small, context‑aware interventions can succeed. Together, these comments shifted the tone from problem‑identification to concrete governance, design, and implementation considerations, shaping a more nuanced, action‑oriented conversation.
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