India has placed its demographic dividend at the centre of its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, with the India AI Impact Summit 2026 highlighting how the country’s youth are shaping a future-ready, inclusive AI ecosystem. The Summit, which commenced on February 16, underscored that with over 65% of India’s population under the age of 35, the country holds one of the world’s largest pools of digitally adaptable young talent.
AI demand is accelerating across sectors. Between January 2023 and March 2025, AI-related job postings in South Asia rose from 2.9% to 6.5% of total vacancies, with demand for AI skills growing 75% faster than non-AI roles. This signals a structural shift in the labour market, where digital fluency and advanced technical skills are increasingly essential.
Recognising AI as a key employment driver, the Union Budget 2026–27 strengthened its focus on youth skilling and the Orange Economy, including animation, gaming, digital content and immersive media. Support was announced for the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT), Mumbai, to establish AI-aligned Content Creator Labs in 15,000 schools and 500 colleges, a move projected to generate nearly 20 lakh jobs. The Budget also proposed an Education to Employment and Enterprise Standing Committee to align academic curricula with evolving industry demands.
Access to affordable AI infrastructure forms another pillar of the strategy. Under the IndiaAI Mission, over ₹10,300 crore has been allocated to strengthen AI capabilities. Building on an existing base of 38,000 GPUs, an additional 20,000 high-end GPUs will expand compute capacity to more than 58,000 GPUs. Offered at a subsidised rate of ₹65 per hour, this initiative lowers entry barriers for startups, students, researchers and institutions, ensuring that AI innovation extends beyond metropolitan hubs into Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
India’s skilling framework spans foundational literacy to advanced research. The National Education Policy 2020 embeds AI literacy and computational thinking in school education. Complementing this, YUVAi (Youth for Unnati with AI) empowers students from Classes 8 to 12 to develop AI solutions for real-world challenges. YUVA AI for All offers free AI literacy courses in 11 Indian languages, targeting one crore citizens.
Vocational initiatives under the Skill India Mission and the SOAR programme have enrolled 1.34 lakh students and teachers as of December 2025. FutureSkills Prime has registered over 25.3 lakh learners across 3,000-plus courses. At the advanced level, IndiaAI FutureSkills supports 500 PhD scholars, 5,000 postgraduates and 8,000 undergraduates. Additionally, 27 IndiaAI Data and AI Labs have been established in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, with approvals for 174 more labs across 27 States and Union Territories.
Youth innovation featured prominently at the Summit. Over 600 startups showcased AI solutions in healthcare, agriculture, education and manufacturing. The YUVAi Global Youth Challenge received more than 2,500 applications from 38 countries, while the AI by HER Global Impact Challenge announced capacity-building support for 150 women-led AI startups. The AI Impact Startup Book, featuring over 100 Indian AI solutions, was also launched to accelerate deployment across ministries and states.
Global benchmarks further reflect India’s progress. The Stanford Global AI Index Report 2025 notes that India’s AI skill penetration is 2.5 times the global average, while the NASSCOM AI Adoption Index reports that 87% of Indian enterprises actively use AI. Reinforcing responsible innovation, India set a Guinness World Record with over 2.5 lakh AI Responsibility Pledges in 24 hours under the IndiaAI Mission in collaboration with Intel India.
Collectively, these initiatives signal India’s commitment to transforming its youth dividend into sustained AI leadership and inclusive economic growth.
(with inputs from PIB)
