Union Cabinet likely to approve ELI schemes after Jharkhand and Maharashtra elections

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet is likely to take up the approval of the employment-linked incentive (ELI) schemes after the assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra are over. Voting in the two states will end on November 20.

The ministry of labour and employment, which is planning to roll-out the three ELI schemes before the end of 2024, had moved for the Cabinet nod for consideration and approval two weeks back, people aware of the development told ET. The ministry plans to set up a steering committee, much on the lines of the network planning group under the PM GatiShakti, for unified planning with stakeholder ministries and undertake comprehensive monitoring of the scheme, one of the persons quoted earlier said.

The steering committee, with heads of planning division of all ministries, will also ensure that enrollment under the three ELI schemes is not cumbersome and will put in place mechanisms to scale up enrollments. "The idea is to also to collate data of enrollments under the scheme across ministries to aid in better monitoring," the first person, quoted above, added.

ET has learnt that the EPFO, under the ministry of labour and responsible for running the three schemes, has conducted the trial run for enrollment under the scheme as well as linkage of data with stakeholder ministries.

Around 90% of India's nearly 500 million workforce is in the informal sector and the government wants a significant shift from informal to formal to ensure minimum wages and social security benefits for all.