Labour, Skill Development and Employment
      Labour
           THE Ministry of Labour and Employment is one of the important and oldest ministries of
      the Government of India. The main responsibility entrusted to the Ministry is to protect and
      safeguard the interests of workers in general and the poor, deprived and disadvantaged sections
      of the society, in particular. Further, the Ministry aims to create a healthy work environment for
      higher production and productivity and to develop and coordinate vocational skill training and
      employment services. To keep itself in tandem with the process of liberalisation, the Ministry’s
      attention is focussed on promotion of welfare of labour and providing social security to the
      labour force both in organised and unorganised sectors. These objectives are sought to be
      achieved through implementation of various labour laws, which regulate the terms and
      conditions of service and employment of workers. Labour being the subject in the Concurrent
      List under the Constitution of India the state governments are also empowered to enact
      legislations.
      Relevant Website: www.labour.gov.in
      New Initiatives
      National Career Service Project
           The Ministry is implementing the National Career Service (NCS) Project as a Mission
      Mode Project for transformation of the National Employment Service to provide a variety of
      employment related services like career counselling, vocational guidance, information on skill
      development courses, apprenticeship, internships etc. The NCS Portal (www.ncs.gov.in) from
      2015. The NCSP is supported by a dedicated helpdesk (multilingual) available from Tuesday to
      Sunday (8.00 AM to 8.00PM) on 18004251514 for assisting users. It has a rich repository of
      career content of over 3600 occupations.
           The NCS Project has also been enhanced to interlink all employment exchanges with the
      NCS Portal so that services can be delivered online. The scheme provides for part funding to
      States for IT upgradation and minor refurbishing of Employment Exchanges and for organizing
      job fairs.
      Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana
           The Ministry is also implementing “Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana” (PMRPY)
      since 2016-17 with the objective of promoting employment generation with an allocation of ₹
      1,000 crore. Under the scheme, Government of India will pay the Employees Pension Scheme
      (EPS) contribution of 8.33 per cent for all new employees enrolling in Employees’ Provident
      Fund Organisation (EPFO) for the first three years of their employment. This will incentivise the
      employers to recruit unemployed persons and also to formalize informal employees. The scheme
      will be applicable to those having earnings of ₹ 15,000/ - per month. A budget provision of ₹
      1000/- crore for this scheme has been made.