Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, on Wednesday, announced that the company, in partnership with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), will train 500,000 people in rural India in AI skills. The company also announced strategic partnerships with RailTel, Apollo Hospitals, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra Group, and upGrad to help their teams and customers benefit from cloud and AI innovation.
Nadella, who was in New Delhi, as part of the Microsoft AI Tour, underlined the need to scale up human skills and noted that there has been tremendous progress around skilling in AI in India.
The announcements come a day after Nadella announced that Microsoft plans to invest $3 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure in India over the next two years, including the establishment of new data centres.
A statement by Microsoft said the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India AI, a division of Digital India Corporation, to collaborate on advancing AI and emerging technologies in India. “Together, Microsoft and India AI aim to leverage AI to drive innovation, enhance productivity, and foster inclusive growth across the country,” it said.
As part of the MoU, Microsoft and India AI together will skill 500,000 individuals, including students, educators, developers, government officials, and women entrepreneurs, by 2026; establish an AI Center of Excellence, ‘AI Catalysts’, to promote rural AI innovation and support 1 lakh AI innovators and developers through hackathons, community-building solutions, and an AI marketplace and also set up ‘AI Productivity Labs’ in 20 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs)/NIELIT centers in 10 states to impart foundational courses for 20,000 educators.
Elaborating on Microsoft’s AI products, Nadella said the company is building three platforms— Copilot, Copilot and AI stack as well as Copilot devices. While underscoring the use and scale of these AI led technologies and products, Nadella also highlighted that the three platforms are grounded in “building trust”.
Noting that technology is deeply ingrained in our daily lives, society and economy, Nadella said that there need to be a set of principles on security, privacy and AI safety and the company is translating those principles into actual capability. These are necessary as the unintended consequences cannot outrun the benefits.
Meanwhile, later during a fireside chat with Nadella, Minister of State for electronics and IT, Jitin Prasada stated that the government is very clear that it does not want to over regulate and stifle innovation but warned that if the challenges from AI become too big, it could consider bringing in legislation to regulate it.
“The Indian government is very clear that we don’t want to over regulate and stifle innovation. That’s very clear and has been the story so far. But of course, we are aware of the risk of AI,” he said, pointing out to the challenges that AI poses in democratic elections. He also noted that there was a deepfake of the Home Minister during the last Lok Sabha election that went ‘very viral’.
“So those are big challenges, and misinformation is there. Right now, we are looking at pro innovation with the existing laws that we have and guidelines. So it’s more self regulation, and that’s where Microsoft and the big tech companies come in…but I must tell that if this challenge becomes bigger, the government will look at bringing in legislation,” he underlined.