LabourNet has appointed Deep Mukherjee of Star (Disney India) as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its B2B2C gig staffing platform SAHI.

Gayathri Vasudevan, LabourNet's Chairperson stated, “The pandemic has issued a wake-up call. The impact on the lives and livelihoods of blue/grey-collar workers has been severe. The SAHI platform, as its name suggests, is our effort to set things right. We want to align the growth trajectory of the industry with the development trajectory of informal laborers. The platform will aggregate skilled workers from across the country and connect them to temp and gig opportunities. Industry sectors where the speed of delivery, credible skill certification, and quality of the workforce has been an issue will experience a remarkable difference. We believe Deep is the right person to lead this effort.”

The Bengaluru based enterprise, known for pioneering new models of livelihood creation in the informal labor market, expects steep growth in demand for blue/grey-collar workers as the economy recovers from COVID-19. LabourNet has said that segments like eCommerce, Healthcare, Construction & Building Materials, Manufacturing, and Sanitation will experience an explosion in demand while emerging industry segments like telemedicine will require 'new-collar' workers or workers with skills that may not exist today.

Prior to accepting this position, Deep Mukherjee was part of the corporate team at Star (Disney India) serving as Sr. Vice President and part of the core team that planned the launch and rapid market penetration of the Star Sports network. Deep was also a co-founding member at TeamLease, a leading temp staffing firm. He has also held leadership roles at Kelly India, a leader in the temp and contract recruitment industry, and NIIT, a market-leader known for industry-focused skills development.

On his appointment, Deep stated, “The industry has already started shifting from 'manpower supply' to 'skill-based, outcome-focused, on-demand gig staffing'. India has a sizable working population and our economy has always had an element of entrepreneurship. The potential for the economy is enormous if we can capitalize on the opportunity. The only thing missing is the ability to source and supply skills mapped to the industry's business logic at scale. The SAHI platform will leverage technology, as well as LabourNet's pan-India on-ground network to solve this. LabourNet's experience of connecting 1 million skilled workers to jobs and structured data from 9 million resumes will be instrumental in our success. I'm excited to be a part of this effort."

The company said that the SAHI platform would aim for all-around technological transformation, not only fulfilling the industry's demand for quality labor comprehensively, but also protecting workers from underpaid work, non-payment of dues, and poor quality work. Given the rise in demand for gig work in the pandemic and post it, Deep has his work cut for orchestrating SAHI’s growth plan.