♦ NITI Aayog on 8 October 2025 launched a pioneering roadmap titled AI for Inclusive Societal Development, a first-of-its-kind national effort to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and frontier technologies to transform the lives and livelihoods of India’s 490 million informal workers.

♦ The report, developed in partnership with Deloitte, marks a major shift in the national AI conversation.

♦ While global discourse has often focused on white-collar jobs and the formal economy, this study centers the informal sector — which contributes nearly half of India’s GDP but remains outside formal protection and productivity systems.

♦ The study warns that without immediate, coordinated action, informal workers’ average annual income could stagnate at $6,000 by 2047—far below the $14,500 per capita target required for India to achieve high-income nation status.