Following the rise of work-from-home practices during the Covid pandemic, the Central government is now working on a new initiative titled ‘job at your hometown’, aimed at helping people secure employment near their native places.
If implemented successfully, this initiative could enable first-time job seekers to find employment opportunities in their local areas, reducing the need to relocate to urban centers.
A government source told ANI that the Ministry of Labour and Employment is creating a system that will allow users to filter job listings based on factors like location, industry, employer, salary range, required skills, and more.
The department is uploading job-related data onto the PM Gati Shakti portal, while the National Career Service (NCS) portal operates as a digital platform that links employers with job seekers, streamlining the balance between job availability and workforce demand.
Currently, the portal has over 41 lakh registered employers and more than one crore individuals seeking employment. In the 2024-2025 fiscal year alone, close to 2.7 crore job vacancies have been listed.
The integration of the PM Gati Shakti platform with the NCS portal will allow job listings to be geo-tagged. A specialized mobile app is being planned to help young people locate employment opportunities within a 20 to 40 km range of their current location. The app will include filters for various preferences such as job location, sector, salary, and required skills.
This system is designed to support first-time job seekers, individuals with limited skills, and those who are not yet highly employable, giving them a chance to find suitable work while staying in their local areas.
The Ministry is currently focused on merging job data from the NCS portal with the PM Gati Shakti platform, and states like Jammu & Kashmir and Gujarat have already taken significant steps in this direction, according to a government source quoted by ANI.
To further strengthen the initiative, the Ministry has been collaborating with the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG) since last year, with the goal of establishing a strong support system for youth in the upcoming year.
The Ministry is collaborating with the PM Gati Shakti platform to onboard and geo-tag establishments associated with its two main social security organizations, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) and the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).
Currently, around 13 lakh EPFO-registered establishments, 51 ESIC establishments, and 104 ESIS hospitals have been mapped as data layers on the platform.
This improved visibility assists in planning and constructing multimodal infrastructure like roads and railways and helps EPFO and ESIC assess the requirements for both ongoing and future projects.
A survey of 268 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) identified through the PM Gati Shakti platform is being reviewed to expand social security benefits to a larger number of workers.
The Ministry also wants to improve the PMGS platform by adding other programs, like NCS Centres, especially those that support differently-abled people, to encourage inclusive growth. This effort aims to help the poorest and most underserved groups, supporting India’s goal of fair growth for everyone.
Launched in 2021, PM Gati Shakti is a major initiative to boost economic growth and sustainable development. With the help of clean energy and everyone’s efforts, it can create many job and business opportunities for all.
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