 "Tech Mahindra's Saral Rozgar targets 3.5 mn job-seekers by end of FY15")
IT services major Tech Mahindra's is looking to enrol at least 3.5 million jobless youth by the end of March 2015, said Mayuk Dasgupta, head of the Saral Rozgar programme that was launched almost two and a half years ago.
Saral Rozgar, a mobile job marketplace that helps blue-collar and entry-level job seekers to connect to mainstream employers in 150 categories via mobile in their own language, currently has two million registered subscribers across 800 cities and about 10,000 employers.
"Though we launched the portal two-and-a-half years back the two million number has been generated in the last 1.5 years’ time,” Dasgupta told Business Standard. “Over the next two to three years we think we can touch a base of 5-6 million subscribers and reach out in 130 cities.”
India has 900 million mobile subscribers, the majority of which are from the urban market. The next phase of growth, says Dasgupta, will come from the rural market, so creating applications that connect directly to consumers through utility services will be crucial.
"There is no organised platform that connects blue-collar jobs. Most of the jobs in this segment happen through references, and brokers," he added.
While a mobile app is on the cards, the service currently primarily works through voice because the the people who register typically have a college degree or lower, and are not yet comfortable in using mobile apps.
Tech Mahindra is also using retail outlets to reach out to job-seekers. "Under the Channel Strategy we have tie-ups with 60,000 retail outlets, which include mobile recharge stores and kirana stores,” Dasgupta said. These stores, which sell the Rs 50 cards needed to register, are connected the company’s 150 distribution centres nationwide.
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“Till now we have good presence in North, West and East of India, we are soon expanding into Southern parts of the country," he added.
Saral Rozgar has also partnered with the e-governance CSC companies like SREI Sahaj, Suvidhaa Infoserve and CMS Computers for expansion into rural markets. Partnerships have been created with the skill development training partners of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), DGET, NIESBUD and IGNOU for matching trained youths to the entry level jobs
The programme also helps job-seekers figure out what they want to do. "Most of the people who call are not sure what they want to do. We try and then give them some counselling based on the skills they have and what they can do," Dasgupta said.
As part of its Saral platform, the company also plans to roll out more utility services such as Saral Dhan which will focus on financial inclusion.