As per the rules, only full-time corporate roles with TDS / PF / Professional Tax count as valid work experience.

This excludes a LOT of real work:

• Early-stage startups where compliance came later

• Small firms paying salaries but no PF

• Family businesses where people ran operations

• Founders, partners, directors in small companies

• Paid work that’s traceable but outside a strict payroll template

• Even internships, articleships, fellowships

The point I don’t get: everyone works. 
The issue should be credibility, not format. Verification is possible through bank trails, role clarity, employer checks, or documents.

By defining work so narrowly, are we limiting batch diversity?

• Startup operators, entrepreneurs, first-gen professionals, people from small but legitimate firms?
  
  

I understand the need for clean data and objective evaluation 
But excluding entire categories of real work in India’s uneven, informal, evolving job market feels extreme.