Expert View: PM Modi’s AI Skilling Push Can Create 1 Crore Young AI-Ready Indians

Expert View: PM Modi’s AI Skilling Push Can Create 1 Crore Young AI-Ready Indians

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement to provide artificial intelligence (AI) skilling training to one crore young Indians over the next year has been welcomed as a significant step towards preparing India’s workforce for an economy increasingly shaped by AI.

Pankaj Srivastava, Founder and CEO, UnoSearch, said the initiative goes beyond conventional skilling and represents an opportunity for India to strengthen its position in the global AI ecosystem.

“One crore young Indians, one year and one extraordinary opportunity,” Srivastava said, describing the initiative as a statement of where India intends to compete in the next phase of the digital economy.

According to him, AI is already transforming the way businesses operate, innovate, recruit talent and engage with customers. As a result, the objective should not be limited to creating AI users, but should extend to developing AI builders, AI strategists and AI-native businesses.

Srivastava pointed to the rapid transformation taking place in the digital search ecosystem as an example. Search is increasingly moving beyond the traditional model of displaying “10 blue links” towards AI-generated answers, recommendations and conversational discovery.

“This shift will create a competitive advantage for professionals and businesses that understand and adapt to it early,” he said.

The proposed skilling drive could therefore have implications well beyond employment. By training millions of young people in AI-related capabilities, India could create a large talent pool capable of supporting innovation across technology, services, manufacturing, education, healthcare, finance and other sectors.

Srivastava said the scale of the initiative presents both an opportunity and a responsibility. The focus, he argued, should be on ensuring that young Indians develop practical capabilities that enable them to create solutions, build businesses and contribute to India’s digital economy.

“10 million trained minds can become 10 million new catalysts for India’s digital economy,” he said.

The initiative comes at a time when AI adoption is accelerating globally and businesses are increasingly seeking professionals who can combine domain expertise with AI capabilities. For India, the challenge will be to translate the scale of training into meaningful skills, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Srivastava believes India should aim for a leadership role in the AI revolution rather than simply becoming a large consumer of AI technologies.

“India shouldn’t just consume the AI revolution. We should build it and lead it,” he said.