Ministry of Labour and Employment Signs MoU with Microsoft

• 13 Dec 2025
• 67 Views

Between the Ministry of Labour and Employment and Microsoft, a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in the presence of Union Minister for Labour & Employment and Youth Affairs & Sports, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya and CEO, Microsoft, Mr. Satya Nadella, in New Delhi, on 10 December 2025. 

This collaboration between the Ministry and Microsoft is a major step that would enable expansion of employment linkages. It will scale AI-led skilling and prepare the Indian workforce for international opportunities.

The main feature of the MoU is the commitment of Microsoft to encourage more than 15,000 employers as well as partners from its extensive global network onto the National Career Platform of the Ministry. This would majorly widen the formal job access and assist the high growth sectors. 

It would also allow India to establish a skilled workforce that would not only help to meet the domestic demand but also the global demand. It would strengthen the pathways for global mobility of Indian professionals as well as the youth. The MoU would also allow for expansion of artificial intelligence skilling initiatives via DigiSaksham. 

It would equip millions of young individuals in India with future ready capabilities in artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, productivity tools and cybersecurity. These efforts will make a key contribution for building a workforce that aligns with global standards as well as the emerging industry requirements.

Union Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya welcomed the partnership with Microsoft. He noted that it reflects a shared ambition to take advantage of the country’s favourable demographic dividend and come up with a globally competitive, digitally skilled and future ready workforce. 

He placed emphasis on the fact that Microsoft’s participation will lead to acceleration in job access, deepen skilling and enhance the leadership of India when it comes to global labour mobility. He further said, “India has achieved a historic milestone in social protection, with coverage rising from 19% in 2015 to an impressive 64.3% in 2025, benefiting over 94 crore citizens. By embedding AI into platforms like e-Shram and the National Career Service, we are fortifying social security and moving closer to our goal of social protection to 100 crore citizens by March 2026.” 

Mr. Nadella, during the time of discussion, appreciated the country’s remarkable expansion to social protection coverage. He noted that the country’s coverage has reached 64.3% and benefits 940 million individuals. 

Specifically, he praised the e-Shram initiative that brought millions of unorganized workers within the net of social protection and strengthened the ability of the country to design policies that are work-centric and based on real-time data.

Mr. Nadella also expressed his company’s interest in assisting India’s journey toward building an Employment Digital Public Infrastructure. He expressed the willingness of his company to support this journey in the next phase. Further, he acknowledged its potential to unlock private innovation as well as create interoperable solutions for labour markets at scale.

The strong Azure and Artificial Intelligence capabilities of Microsoft align with the priorities of the Ministry for strengthening the National Career Services platform, e-Shram analytics and labour market intelligence, and modernizing employment services and job-matching mechanisms.

The MoU between the Ministry of Labour and Employment and Microsoft will leverage the latter’s partner ecosystem to widen employer outreach and enhance adoption of NCS among industry, institutions and training partners. 

Source: Press Information Bureau (PIB)