By Gaurav Bhagat, Founder, Gaurav Bhagat Academy: As synthetic intelligence (AI) turns into ubiquitous, from school rooms to boardrooms, India is racing to nurture a technology of “AI natives.” Very similar to digital natives who grew up fluent in web expertise, AI natives are those that will seamlessly combine AI into every day life and work.
The nation’s imaginative and prescient of an “AI-first” India hinges on empowering these future leaders and entrepreneurs with AI abilities and mindset from the bottom up.
India is utilizing multi-pronged efforts in constructing AI natives, from nationwide initiatives and academic reforms to innovation hubs and labs like BITSoM’s BRAIN Lab, which exemplify how it’s making ready its youth for management in an AI-driven period.
AI-First India: Imaginative and prescient and Nationwide Technique
The Indian authorities has articulated a transparent imaginative and prescient to leverage AI for inclusive progress beneath the banner “AI for All.” In its Nationwide Technique for AI, NITI Aayog (the federal government’s coverage think-tank) frames #AIforAll as India’s model of AI management, one which focuses on fixing the nation’s distinctive wants and driving social growth alongside financial beneficial properties.
This implies utilizing AI not only for revenue, however for healthcare, agriculture, training, good cities, and good mobility, which the technique recognized as high-impact domains.
The intention is for India to change into a worldwide “storage” for rising economies, a proving floor for AI options that may then be tailored throughout the creating world.
To beat limitations like restricted experience, knowledge entry, and analysis capability, India has launched main nationwide AI applications, together with Centres of Excellence in healthcare, agriculture, and sustainable cities, with a brand new ₹500 crore CoE for AI in training introduced within the 2025 Union Funds.
The IndiaAI Dataset Platform serves as an open repository of anonymized datasets, decreasing knowledge limitations and bettering AI answer accuracy throughout sectors. Moreover, a backed nationwide AI compute facility is being rolled out, providing inexpensive GPU entry at simply ₹100/hour in comparison with world prices of ~$3/hour, enabling startups, researchers, and tutorial establishments to innovate with out prohibitive infrastructure prices.
India can be investing in its personal AI applied sciences. A nationwide mission is underway to develop indigenous AI fashions and instruments tailor-made to Indian languages and wishes.
For example, the Digital India Bhashini platform supplies AI-powered translation for Indian languages, enabling inclusive digital companies. India initiated BharatGen, the globe’s first government-supported multimodal AI language mannequin program, in 2024 to advertise public-sector AI purposes in language, speech, and imaginative and prescient.
Native giant language fashions like Sarvam 1 (a 2-billion-parameter Indian 10-language mannequin) have additionally emerged, marking India’s dedication to create core AI expertise domestically.
Above all, India’s imaginative and prescient of AI-for-All is inclusive and moral. Inner debates relating to how AI could be utilized (e.g. convention actions similar to RAISE 2020, and dealing with UNESCO in collaboration for AI ethics) reaffirm that India’s AI revolution gained’t be merely sturdy, it will likely be moral and simply.
By pioneering knowledge privateness, avoiding bias, and transparency first, India seeks to facilitate that AI penetrates all walks of society.
Skilling the Subsequent Era: Schooling Initiatives for AI Natives
India is taking complete steps to create AI natives by embedding synthetic intelligence into training and skilling in any respect ranges. On the college degree, CBSE launched AI as an elective topic (Courses 9–12) with an in depth curriculum protecting machine studying, NLP, and laptop imaginative and prescient, later expanded to Class 12 with a give attention to technical and moral features.
Past colleges, the “AI For All” mass consciousness program (by CBSE, Intel, and the Ministry of Schooling) affords free AI literacy to residents in 11 languages. On the college degree, IITs and different establishments now have full-fledged B.Tech, M.Tech, and PhD applications in AI and knowledge science, backed by labs, tasks, and experiential studying.
Packages similar to Atal Tinkering Labs introduce college students early to robotics, coding, and fundamental AI tasks and develop innovation abilities. For the working inhabitants, authorities–{industry} partnerships similar to NASSCOM’s FutureSkills PRIME and IndiaAI Future Abilities fellowships provide mass-level upskilling and AI analysis alternatives.
These initiatives, alongside Nationwide Centres of Excellence, are regularly developing a various, future-proof AI expertise base.
That is echoed within the Stanford AI Index 2024, which locations India #1 on the earth for AI ability penetration, with 263% progress in AI expertise between 2016 and 2024 and excessive girls skilled illustration, indicating the success of Indian academic interventions in creating an AI-first workforce.
Shaping AI-Prepared Leaders: BITSoM’s BRAIN Lab as a Case Examine
The BRAIN Lab (BITSoM Analysis in AI and Innovation) on the BITS Faculty of Administration, Mumbai, launched in September 2025, is a pioneering initiative to combine AI into administration training and create AI-literate enterprise leaders.
Constructed on three pillars, educating, analysis, and outreach, the lab weaves AI into BITSoM’s MBA curriculum, requiring each scholar to construct an AI-based product or answer earlier than commencement. It additionally fuels industry-research tasks in manufacturing, healthcare, BFSI, and International Functionality Facilities, with outputs brazenly shared as case research and prototypes for broader use.
By means of shut industry-academia partnerships, world mentors, government training, and annual AI conferences, the lab takes its attain past the campus. Simply as related, the BRAIN Lab additionally serves as an incubator, sowing AI-startups with accelerator initiatives and introducing founders to VC networks in Silicon Valley and India.
In an open, tech-rich innovation campus, it hopes to encompass college students with human-AI collaboration, gearing them as much as lead workplaces the place technique and algorithms meet.
Such a mannequin makes BITSoM a pacesetter in churning out AI-ready entrepreneurs and managers, serving as a template for different Indian establishments to observe.
Conclusion: A Futuristic AI-First India by AI Natives
India stands at a turning level in its expertise trajectory, utilizing its youth bulge, digital spine, and coverage thrust to create “AI natives” who will excel in an AI world. With initiatives similar to AI-enriched curricula, nationwide on-line skilling, innovation parks and start-up incubators, the nation is creating its subsequent technology AI-literate by default.
Points like digital divide, scaling up analysis, and making moral and inclusive deployment of AI proceed to plague us, however efforts similar to Digital India, coaching labs of NIELIT, and world partnerships are closing gaps.
The expertise of BITSoM’s BRAIN Lab demonstrates how training can reimagine pedagogy, foster innovation, and convey academia and {industry} collectively to create AI-ready leaders.
When replicated throughout establishments on a big scale, this programme has the potential to make India aggressive with college students, startups, and companies offering AI options on an equal foundation.
By investing in human capital and democratizing AI literacy throughout society, India is translating its demographic dividend to a technological dividend, positioning itself as an financial large the place “AI for All” doesn’t simply imply entry to AI however really working in the direction of shaping its future.
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