Jobs
India’s care economy could create 60 million jobs by 2030
NATIONAL: India is sitting on one of its largest untapped growth engines: care work. Long treated as a private household responsibility, the care economy already employs an estimated 36 million people, yet remains undervalued, informal and largely invisible in economic planning.
A new report argues that care must be reimagined as a core economic sector, capable of anchoring India’s next phase of growth. With targeted investment in skilling, certification, formalisation and demand creation, the sector could generate over 60 million jobs by 2030 and create market value of $300 billion.
The study redefines the care economy for India by mapping 13 distinct care personas, spanning childcare, eldercare, disability support, rehabilitation, mental health, wellness, beauty, domestic services and care enterprise management. This broader definition captures the fragmented but vast reality of paid care in India, much of which remains statistically invisible and politically neglected.
Contrary to entrenched assumptions, the report finds that care jobs are not inherently low-value or precarious. Where roles are formalised and linked to organised service delivery, care work can offer stable, predictable and often comparatively well-paid employment, particularly for women and young workers. The constraint, it argues, is not demand but design.
Care demand is geographically dispersed, cutting across metros, tier-2 and tier-3 cities, peri-urban regions and rural India. This makes it one of the few sectors where growth is naturally decentralised, capable of creating quality jobs where people already live and reducing distress migration.
Despite rising demand driven by ageing, chronic disease and changing family structures, the sector continues to grow by default rather than by design. Workers bear the risks of informality and income volatility, enterprises struggle to scale without regulatory clarity, and households face uneven quality and high costs.
The report calls for explicit fiscal and institutional intent in the Union Budget, including dedicated allocations for care services, skilling and worker protection. It proposes a National Care Services Mission, aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat, to treat care as productive economic infrastructure rather than welfare expenditure.
A proposed Nurture framework outlines how mission-led governance, skill pathways, regulation, technology, social protection and enterprise growth could convert an invisible workforce into a structured industry. The report concludes that the question for policymakers is no longer whether care should be prioritised, but whether India is ready to build it deliberately.
Jobs
India to hold its first ‘workplace happiness’ awards in Mumbai
A new initiative wants to make employee wellbeing a boardroom priority, not an afterthought
MUMBAI: India’s corporate world has a new trophy to chase, and this one is not for profits or market share. Happiest Places to Work has announced the country’s first awards dedicated entirely to workplace happiness, with the inaugural ceremony set to be held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai towards the end of July.
The timing is deliberate. As employee experience increasingly shapes business outcomes, the awards aim to shift the conversation from perks and policies to something harder to fake: how people actually feel at work. Entries are open to organisations across sectors and sizes, and the evaluation process is designed to cut through corporate spin, combining a structured Happiness Dialogue, a culture audit and a final jury review to produce measurable insights into employee experience.
The awards will be chaired by Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Group, and judged by a heavyweight jury that reads like a who’s who of Indian business and human resources. It includes Achal Khanna, chief executive of SHRM for the Asia-Pacific and MENA regions, Harit Nagpal, managing director and chief executive of Tata Play, Pavitra Singh, chief human resources officer at PepsiCo India and South Asia, and Sunita Cherian, former chief culture officer at Wipro, among others.
“Workplace happiness is becoming central to how organisations grow and perform,” said Goenka. “Platforms like these help bring that conversation to the forefront.”
Raj Nayak, founder of Happiest Places to Work, was more direct. “Organisations often overlook the everyday employee experience,” he said. “These awards recognise companies that get it right consistently, where how people feel at work truly matters.”
India’s corner offices have long measured success in revenue, headcount and market capitalisation. If this initiative takes hold, employee happiness may finally earn a place on that list.
The question now is whether the companies that need it most will bother to enter.
