Fresh off a Rs 7 crore pre-seed funding round led by Sahyadri Farms, Bharat Intelligence is building an AI-powered operating system for rural employment, aiming to match one million agricultural workers with jobs while reshaping the economics of labour, productivity, and inclusion in India’s farm sector.

India has over 140 million farm labourers, many of whom are tribal or migrant workers with no structured job market, social protection, or career mobility. Labour costs account for 40–60 per cent of farm operational expenses, representing a Rs 100,000 crore opportunity in Maharashtra alone. Bharat Intelligence, a pioneering rural technology company, is addressing this challenge head-on by building Bharat’s Labour OS — an AI-powered platform designed to connect millions of agricultural workers with farmers, creating efficiency, inclusion, and prosperity across rural India. The platform leverages artificial intelligence and data-driven insights to organise the informal farm labour market, enabling both farmers and workers to thrive. Since beginning operations from Nashik district, the company has already onboarded over 1,00,000 acres of horticulture farmers and thousands of tribal and migrant workers across Western Maharashtra.  The company aims to match 10 lakh workers with jobs over the next two years and double rural incomes through structured employment and fair wage access. The company recently raised a Rs 7 crore pre-seed round, led by Sahyadri Farms, India’s largest farmer-producer company. In an exclusive interview with AgroSpectrum Azhaan Merchant, Co-Founder & CEO envision a future where every rural worker in India has access to fair, reliable, and tech-enabled employment. Edited excerpts:

What inspired you to start Bharat Intelligence, and why focus specifically on the agricultural labour market?

Bharat Intelligence was born from a simple observation: India modernised agriculture, but never modernised the labour systems powering it. More than 140 million agricultural labourers — many from migrant and tribal communities — still operate through fragmented informal networks with little visibility, stability, or protection.

When I spent time in rural Maharashtra, I realised the issue was not lack of work. Farmers needed labour, workers needed income, but there was no infrastructure organising demand, skills, or workforce movement.

Our mission is to help end extremely rural poverty by creating stable and dignified employment for millions of invisible workers, while also enabling farmers to confidently grow high-value horticulture crops that are labour-intensive but economically transformative.

 How can structured labour markets transform rural incomes in India?

Rural income instability is fundamentally a predictability problem. Most workers rely on fragmented contractor networks where wages and work availability fluctuate constantly. Structured labour markets introduce continuity, visibility, and trust.

Workers gain access to recurring employment across regions and crop cycles, while farmers gain reliable access to skilled labour. Over time, verified work histories help workers build an economic identity, unlocking better wages, financial inclusion, and long-term mobility.

What does the term “Bharat’s Labour OS” mean in practical terms?

“Bharat’s Labour OS” refers to the infrastructure layer organising rural labour markets. We are building systems that forecast labour demand, track workforce movement, match workers to farms based on crop-specific skills, and create digital identities so workers’ experience and reliability become measurable over time. The goal is not just a hiring platform. It is long-term labour infrastructure for rural India.

To read the full story, click: https://online.anyflip.com/unmb/dshg/mobile/index.html