MAHA INITIATIVE: AI-ENABLED SKILLS SURVEY IN MUMBAI SUBURBAN UPDATED

In a first of its kind AI-enabled Skill Census in India, Mumbai’s H-West ward mapped over 59,000 households and identified job matches for about 22,000 youth in the age group 18-40 years. The Saksham Skill Census led by the District Collector and Magistrate for Mumbai Suburban District, Saurabh Katiyar, an IAS officer of 2016 batch hailing from Maharashtra cadre, is aimed at identifying candidates, their potential, skills and skilling requirement and linkage with potential employers.

The Saksham Skill Census is an initiative mooted by the District Collector, Mumbai Suburban, and the District Skill Development, Employment and Entrepreneurship Guidance Centre (DSDEEGC), government of Maharashtra. The project has been implemented by Sapio Analytica Pvt. Ltd., which developed the AI platform powering the census and continuous livelihood matching system.

Launched as a pilot project, the results of the census were heartening, said District Collector Saurabh Katiyar talking to Whispers In The Corridors. He said the aim of the state government is to move to data-driven governance.

The first phase of the project survey was held across three areas Bandra West, Santacruz West and Khar West targeting 59,824 households, creating 44,982 individual candidate profiles, while engaging 1,018 employers and mapping 54 training institutions between March and July 2026, he said.

The report of the skill census was unveiled by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis during the State Cabinet meeting at Mantralaya earlier this week. 

(For details read Whispers In The Corridors magazine, September 2026 edition)