What the Directorate's recommendation actually says — and what it doesn't.

On the morning of 20 August 2025, an official letter from the Directorate of Industries & Commerce, Kashmir landed in our inbox. It was signed by Mr. Khalid Majeed (JKAS), Director, Industries & Commerce, Kashmir. We had met his team two weeks earlier on the 6th of August to talk about the platform.

The letter recommends that HelpRush badge PM Vishwakarma beneficiaries who are onboarded — or who shall get onboarded — on our platform. It goes further: the Directorate will facilitate the verification of the credentials of those beneficiaries, as and when required. In return, we are expected to maintain a comprehensive record of the badged beneficiaries and report progress weekly.

Why this matters

PM Vishwakarma beneficiaries are India's traditional artisans and craftspeople — carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, tailors, locksmiths, the trades that built this country before they had platforms to sell on. The scheme exists to bring them tools, credit, and market access. The Directorate's recommendation gives that market access a verifiable backstop: a customer hiring a Vishwakarma-badged plumber on HelpRush is hiring someone the State Directorate has vouched for.

For HelpRush, it's a kind of credibility we couldn't have manufactured. The platform is recommended in writing, on letterhead, with a reference number. Anyone can verify the letter — its contents are reproduced in full on /government.

Now the careful part

It is a recommendation, not a partnership. It is from one State Directorate, not the whole of Government. It applies specifically to the Vishwakarma onboarding pathway, not to HelpRush's commercial activities at large. We will not display Government emblems on the site — by Indian law and by our own preference. We will not drape the platform in a flag.

What we will do is exactly what the letter says: onboard beneficiaries, badge them after the Directorate verifies their credentials, keep a clean record, file a progress report every week. The badge appears on a profile only when the verification is real. We have set a hard rule in our codebase that the badge cannot be applied without a verified flag — no demo fakes, no marketing-day shortcuts.

“The Directorate will facilitate the verification of the credentials of such beneficiaries as and when required. It is expected that the Help Rush will maintain comprehensive record of all the PM Vishwakarma beneficiaries who have been or will get on boarded and issued badges, upon verification by this Directorate.”

How we'll use it

Quietly. Factually. Where it earns the customer's trust — on the provider's profile page, on a dedicated /government page that quotes the letter in full, on the comparison page where we contrast our credentialing approach with the incumbent. We will not put a Government emblem on a billboard. We will let the badge appear on a real artisan's profile and let the customer draw their own conclusions.

If you are a PM Vishwakarma beneficiary in Kashmir reading this: apply at /partner/apply, tick the Vishwakarma flag, and the Directorate's verification pathway is open to you. If you are anyone else: this is what state recognition looks like when it's earned, written down, and used carefully.