Govt to launch National Career Service 2.0 in 2024; prod states on labour reforms

New Delhi: The government will launch the second version of the National Career Service (NCS) portal as well as persuade states to roll out labour reforms as part of efforts to further improve the ease of doing business and provide social security for the unorganised labour, particularly gig and platform workers, in 2024.

Union Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav told PTI that his ministry will soon launch the 'advanced version, namely NCS 2.0, to facilitate better job matching and search facility for jobseekers along with a recommendation engine for skilling by the use of latest technologies and leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning'.

The NCS project was launched in July 2015 to provide various employment-related services, including career counselling, vocational guidance, information on skill development courses, apprenticeship and internships, through a digital platform.

As of November 30 this year, the NCS platform had more than 3.64 crore registered jobseekers, 19.15 lakh employers and a listing of more than 1.92 crore vacancies. The portal registered more than 13.49 lakh active vacancies in November.

The portal is integrated with facilities of 28 state/Union Territories to develop a comprehensive pan-India network. It has also been integrated with various private portals like monster.com, Freshersworld and HireMee to have a listing of vacancies.

It is also linked with the government's Skill India portal Udyam Portal (MSME), e-Shram, EPFO, ESIC and DigiLocker, among others.

Regarding labour reforms, the minister said that in 2024, "As India continues to march towards being a developed economy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, I am hopeful states will begin rolling out the labour reform introduced by the Centre."

".. so that the India of Amrit Kaal has a healthier and socially secure workforce that contributes to the country's growth and at the same time gains from it; and also so that we continue to firm up ease of business in the country," he noted.

To roll out labour reforms in the country, the Centre has formulated four Labour Codes -- the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020.

Among other objectives, these codes seek to strengthen the protection available to workers, including unorganised workers, in terms of statutory minimum wage, social security and healthcare.

As a step towards implementation of the four codes, rules are required to be framed by the central government as well as by the state governments.

The central government and several states/Union Territories (UTs) have pre-published the draft rules under the four codes for stakeholder comments.

The Centre wants to enforce rules under the four codes simultaneously with states for uniform applicability of these laws as labour is in the concurrent list of the Constitution of India.

Meanwhile, this year saw a significant development with respect to higher pensions on higher contributions for subscribers of the Employees' Pension Scheme 1995 run by the retirement fund body EPFO.

Earlier this year, an online facility was made available by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for submitting applications for Validation of Option/Joint Options for pension on higher wages. The facility was for eligible pensioners/ members in compliance with the Supreme Court order on November 4, 2022.

The facility will allow the subscribers and pensioners to contribute more on their actual basic wages, which are higher than the threshold of Rs 15,000 per month. This will enable them to get higher pensions commensurate with their actual basic wage.