Mphasis F1 Foundation & The/Nudge Prize's Digital Naukri Challenge Announces 4 Finalists to Scale Digital Livelihoods for 30,000+ Women Across India

PRNewswire

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 9: The Digital Naukri Challenge yesterday named four finalists who will each aim to place 5,000+ women in flexible digital jobs over the next nine months, with a collective target of enabling 30,000+ digital livelihood opportunities. B2R Technologies, Futwork, Karya, and Myna Mahila Foundation were announced at a Bengaluru event, and each received milestone grants of ₹35 lakh to fund their next stage of growth.

The Challenge is an 18-month results-based financing initiative run by The/Nudge Prize, in partnership with Mphasis through the Mphasis F1 Foundation. It addresses a critical gap: India has over 80 million women aged 25-40 outside the workforce, many of whom face barriers such as mobility constraints, caregiving responsibilities, and the absence of local opportunities.

Early Achievements & Insights from the First Phase

Over the first nine months, eleven organisations, with a presence across 13+ States in India, tested digitally enabled work models across sectors, including agriculture, rural healthcare, BPO services, emerging data and AI services, and edtech and jobtech platforms. Participating organisations were evaluated on their ability to provide at least 500 women from low-education, low-resource communities with consistent work earning ₹200-₹500 per hour for a minimum of 10 days a month, with time and location flexibility.

The cohort's achievements highlight a clear pattern: flexibility in when and where work happens is essential to enabling participation. Around 45% of participants required permission from family members to travel for work. Models that reduced or eliminated the need for travel were able to reach women who would otherwise remain excluded. Across all eleven organisations, 70% of workers had access to flexible working hours, and remote roles consistently expanded access in areas with limited local employment options.

Two categories produced the strongest results. AI model training and data evaluation work, particularly tasks broken into short, smartphone-based tasks, proved accessible to women with significant mobility constraints and required lower onboarding time. BPO models, both fully remote and supported by low-cost local centres, delivered higher and more consistent earnings.

Income and consistency varied significantly across models. Remote BPO roles delivered the strongest earnings, with participants averaging ₹10,000-₹14,000 per month. Task-based AI data work ranged from ₹2,000 to ₹6,000 per month, often serving as supplementary income. In terms of consistency, BPO-based models operated closer to formal employment, with 85-95% of workers engaged month-on-month, while task-based models saw fewer than one in three participants receiving work consistently for 10+ days per month.

The four finalists, B2R Technologies, Futwork, Karya, and Myna Mahila Foundation, now enter the 'Scalability Phase', the next stage of the Challenge, where they will focus on expanding these models while maintaining accessibility, income stability, and safety. Each organisation will work towards scaling sustainable livelihood pathways, with a combined target of generating over $10 million in new livelihoods.

"The learnings from the first phase of the Digital Naukri Challenge show that when work opportunities are designed with flexibility and consistency in mind, they can enable meaningful income for women who face constraints around mobility and access. With the selection of the finalists, the next step is to scale these approaches in a way that remains inclusive while strengthening income stability. At Mphasis, we see this as a critical step towards building sustainable livelihood pathways for women at scale," said Deepa Nagraj, Global Head of CSR and ESG, Mphasis.

"Tonight marks a significant milestone for the Digital Naukri Challenge and for the broader question of what ethical, dignified digital work can look like for women in India. Across eleven organisations and over 1,200 women, we learned the true shape of this problem: the mobility constraints, the flexibility requirements, the distance between onboarding and livelihood. Four models are now moving faster and deeper than the rest, demonstrating that this market can be made, deliberately and responsibly. The finalists carry with them not just prize capital, but the evidence, the ethics, and the ambition to scale what works," said Kanishka Chatterjee, Ecosystem Partner and Advisor, The/Nudge Institute.

The Challenge also highlighted broader shifts in the nature of digital work. Advances in generative AI are reshaping demand, with routine tasks increasingly automated and greater emphasis placed on higher-value work such as AI evaluation and quality assurance. This is expected to influence how digital livelihoods evolve, with a growing need for skills, consistency, and quality in emerging roles.

As the finalists move into the next phase, the focus will be on translating early learnings into models that can scale sustainably across geographies while continuing to address barriers related to access, flexibility, and income stability at scale.

Access more details here - https://www.thenudge.org/digital-naukri-challenge/

About The/Nudge Institute

The/Nudge is an action institute building resilient livelihoods to alleviate poverty. We work with social entrepreneurs, women, farmers, tribals and youth on rural development, agriculture, skilling and economic inclusion, along with 15 central and state government partners. Set up with support from 90+ eminent philanthropists, 40+ corporates and 15+ foundations, The/Nudge is contributing towards a "poverty-free India, within our lifetime."

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About Mphasis

Mphasis' purpose is to be the "Driver in Driverless Car" for Global Enterprises by applying next-generation design, architecture, and engineering services, to deliver scalable and sustainable software and technology solutions. Customer centricity is foundational to Mphasis, and is reflected in the Mphasis'Front2Back™ Transformation approach. Front2Back™ uses the exponential power of cloud and cognitive to provide a hyper-personalised (C=X2C2™=1) digital experience to clients and their end customers. Mphasis' Service Transformation approach helps 'shrink the core' through the application of digital technologies across legacy environments within an enterprise, enabling businesses to stay ahead in a changing world. Mphasis' core reference architectures and tools, speed and innovation with domain expertise and specialization, combined with an integrated sustainability and purpose-led approach across its operations and solutions are key to building strong relationships with marquee clients. Click here to know more. (BSE: 526299) (NSE: MPHASIS)

Media Contact: Manasa Ramakrishnan, manasa.ramakrishnan@thenudge.org

Annexure: About the Four Finalists

Futwork

Futwork is a distributed BPO platform that trains and connects women from tier-2 and tier-3 cities to flexible, remote telecalling and customer service jobs in sectors such as edtech, fintech, and e-commerce. With over 70% of its agents being women, Futwork has democratised the BPO model by distributing work entirely via smartphone, eliminating travel requirements and enabling workers to choose their timings. Once onboarded, women have a clear career progression pathway from certified telecaller to senior and expert roles.

Myna Mahila Foundation

Myna Mahila Foundation's RaniWork platform offers flexible, remote data and AI solutions jobs, including data annotation, transcription, and AI-related microtasks. They enable this while addressing critical gaps that mainstream platforms miss: community support, trust-building, and culturally sensitive onboarding. Operating out of Maharashtra, Myna Mahila offers flexible work and has also established physical safe-space centres within 5 minutes of women's homes.

B2R Technologies

B2R Technologies unlocks the potential of rural women from the hills of Uttarakhand by transforming their skills into inclusive digital livelihoods through its low-cost BPO centres. B2R offers a wide range of BPO services from data management and analysis, telecalling, AI/ML annotation, bookkeeping, and background verification, while deeply investing in the skills of local women who have very limited access to white-collar employment. B2R's model has provided a compelling alternative to outmigration, bringing underserved women into the economic mainstream with consistent, higher-wage employment.

Karya

Karya connects rural women across India to remote, flexible opportunities in AI and ML data services, including speech tasks, LLM evaluations, audio transcription, and conversational data work in Indic languages. Karya's platform-based model is accessible via a mobile app and requires only basic digital literacy, making it one of the most inclusive entry points into digital work. The organisation has also developed a vulnerability index to ensure it targets women most in need, and is now exploring a Platform-as-a-Service model.

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