By Kuber Shri Shukla

From a struggling economy facing severe fiscal deficits just before the famous LPG (liberalization, privatization and globalization) reforms of 1991, to becoming the fourth largest economy in the world, the story of India has come a long way. In this journey India’s IT sector, with an estimated market size of US$ 125 billion, has played a crucial role. IT sector in India contributes to around 7.5% of India’s GDP and provides employment to around 5 million people. Additionally, it is the one sector of India that is infused with a steady foreign capital, ranking second in the net cash inflows worth roughly US$ 87 billion.[1] All this goes to show that India has been a dominant player in the current IT industry, in part thanks to its liberal policies and its focus on research and development coupled with a robust support mechanism for these undertakings at the grassroot level. This article discusses whether India can now, with the advent of AI knocking at the door, replicate the same miracle it managed to pull off earlier.

The AI wave

Ever since the launch of Chatgpt on the 30th of November 2022, it has seen its fastest rise in the number of users among all other social media platform, with its number of users reaching 1 million within the first 5 days of the release and surpassing 100 million by January 2023. [2] This rapid rise underscores a very relevant point that a new paradigm shift has occurred. But before we dive too deep into the more nuanced exploration of what this symbolizes for us and how we must deal with the situation going forward, let us understand what AI is.

Artificial intelligence, according to Coppin, is the ability of machines to adapt to new situations, deal with emerging situations, solve problems, answer questions, devise plans, and perform various other functions that require some level of intelligence typically evident in human beings. [3] In another definition, Whitby defined artificial intelligence as the study of intelligent behavior in human beings, animals, and machines and endeavoring to engineer such behavior into an artifact, such as computers and computer-related technologies. [4] Up to this point in our history complex thought has been solely the domain of homo sapiens but along comes this generative AI which, with the help of its complex models, can not only compete but also outperform humans in various domain-specific tasks such as image classification, visual reasoning, and English language understanding.[5] The global AI market size is projected to reach $733.7 billion by 2027, with a 42.2% CAGR. [6] With so many applications and adoptation of various technologies, it becomes imperative for us to not just look at AI as some disruptive force but rather learn from it and adapt according to these changing market conditions and leverage this opportunity for further growth and development especially in education.

Upskilling the nation: AI literacy for all

Literacy rates in and of themselves have been a cause for concern among the government of India since ages and now with the rise of artificial intelligence, The Government of India has launched various initiatives that would inculcate academic rigor among the students and introduce them to various online learning platforms which, with the help of these new AI-based solutions, provides a more comprehensive learning framework to the students. Some of these initiatives include:

PM eVidya. In a recent study done by the author Rachana Saxena, she demonstrated how the use of ICT in the classroom is correlated with the increased performance of children. In her research she collected data from 70 students across 10 universities and found a high statistical correlation between the use of digital infrastructure and the learning outcomes of the students. This demonstrates the effectiveness of these schemes.[7]

Diksha. Another such study explores how the Diksha initiative has helped provide multilingual e-content, interactive sessions and inclusive tools for differently abled learners. The key achievement being the fact that the platform has reached 5 billion plus usage sessions further solidifying that various technological initiatives like these have helped in student engagement and also the teaching capacity. [8]

The role of Edtech

We explored how various government initiatives have helped in developing the digital infrastructure needed for the digital transformation and adaptation of the AI learning models. In this entire development the role of the rising Edtech industry in India is crucial. The Edtech industry has an estimated size of around 7.5 billion dollars, expected to become approximately 30 billion dollars by the year 2030. [9]

This Edtech industry can become the purveyor and the backbone of the AI revolution in the country as explored by (Maruti and Arif, 2024) in their paper which talks about how a broad spectrum of educational technologies including mobile apps, virtual classrooms and MOOCs (massive open online courses) have helped over 300 million students, with over 40 million of those in higher education whose learning was disrupted by the pandemic. [10] In a similar fashion, we can leverage this digital infrastructure to provide a framework for basic usage of AI.

Concerns Related to AI in Education

Privacy and Security Concerns
Privacy, or lack thereof, has always been a cause of concern in the age of the internet and now, more so than ever, with these data hungry machines there is also an alarming possibility that AI could be used to create deep fakes and potentially impersonate someone causing them severe psychological distress in the process. Government needs to take these concerns very seriously and form policies addressing them.

Lack of Trust
Since AI is still prone to “hallucinations” deploying it on an industry wide scale especially in critical situations like grading humans and giving them feedback might be met with resistance from students and teachers alike. Until we work on making it more reliable we can’t really expect it to make autonomous decisions anytime soon.

Cost
AI systems can use a lot of electricity which comes at a steep cost and makes them expensive, which can be a challenge for educational institutions that are already facing budget constraints. Institutions must carefully consider the costs and benefits of implementing AI systems in their classrooms.

Potential Bias
AI systems can sometimes be biased due to their dataset or any other algorithmic reasons against certain groups and that can be very harmful especially if someone is trying to learn from these models. Therefore, we must ensure that these AI systems can eliminate their biases or find a way to curb them.

Ethical Considerations

Ensuring Accessibility: AI based education must be designed to be accessible to all including those with disabilities so that we may promote inclusion in technology sector.

Transparency: Transparency remains a very relevant problem when it comes to AI as no one can be completely sure about how the algorithm arrived to the data and inference that it got. Combatting this problem remains a challenge for the researchers and developers alike.

Fairness: AI must be trained in such a way that ensures fairness and must not reflect any harmful stereotypes towards any certain groups or individuals.

Future of AI in Education: While the future of AI education seems to be bright helping us innovate in various fields, assist our scientists in making new discoveries and transform the way we interact with digital technologies altogether making them more personalized, efficient and effective.

Policy recommendations

To successfully transform from being an IT hub to an AI powerhouse India must adopt coherent and actionable policy frameworks that focus on education, innovation and inclusion. Firstly, we must give more impetus to the current digital learning missions, streamline them under one key central scheme and ensure that there is a robust curriculum for the AI-based learning module and also sufficient infrastructural support for the same.

Second, the government should mandate the technological frameworks and integrate them with the current educational landscape so that the children are future-ready. We must focus on innovation driven ideas that foster an ecosystem for learning, thinking, exploring and implementing these ideas at large. Third, Indian Government must push forward on the frontier of public-private partnerships with Edtech sector so that they are better positioned to provide support to even the rural areas while ensuring a benchmark for quality education and equitable access.

Finally, to bridge the gap between the urban and rural parts of India, there must be more infrastructural development, reliable internet access to villages, affordable devices and community learning hubs that ensure quality education among the economically weaker sections of society.

Kuber Shri Shukla is a Policy Research and Advocacy Intern at SarkariSchool.in and has completed his Bachelor’s Degree from Christ Church College, Kanpur. Please write your comment at [email protected].

References:
• Mukherjee, A. (2025). The Service Sector In India. Econstor.Eu. Hdl:11540/2314.
• Krunal Vaghasiya. (2024, June 5). Chatgpt Statistics: Rapid Growth From Launch To 2023-2024. Best Social Proof & Fomo App For Your Website | Wisernotify. Https://Wisernotify.Com/Blog/Chatgpt-Users/
• B. Coppin, Artificial Intelligence Illuminated, Boston, Ma, Usa:Jones And Bartlett, 2004.
• B. Whitby, Artificial Intelligence: A Beginner’s Guide, Oxford, U.K.:Oneworld, 2008.
• Ai In 2024: Surpassing Human Capabilities, Revolutionizing Industries, And Facing Key Challenges – Unu Campus Computing Centre. (2025, January 21). Unu.Edu. Https://C3.Unu.Edu/Blog/Ai-In-2024-Surpassing-Human-Capabilities-Revolutionizing-Industries-And-Facing-Key-Challenges
• Grand View Research. (2024). Artificial Intelligence Market Size, Share | Ai Industry Report, 2025. Grand View Research. Https://Www.Grandviewresearch.Com/Industry-Analysis/Artificial-Intelligence-Ai-Market
• Saxena, R., Agarwal, C., Agarwal, P., & Kumar, S. (2023). The Study Of The Impact Of Ict Enabled University Education On Sustainable Development Goals In India [Article]. Journal Of The Asiatic Society Of Mumbai, 97–97(7), 59–60. Https://Www.Researchgate.Net/Publication/372890966.
• Altaf, F., Anees, S., Maulana Azad National Urdu University, & Central University Of Kerala. (2025). Diksha: Shaping The School Education Ecosystem In India. In Peer Reviewed And Refereed International Journal. Sucharitha Publication, India. Https://Ijmer.S3.Amazonaws.Com/Pdf/Volume14/Volume14-Issue2(1)/5.Pdf
• [Impact Study Of Edtech In India: Driving Innovation & Creating Opportunities]. (N.D.). In Leadsquared, Leadsquared. Https://Highereducationplus.Com/Wp-Content/Uploads/2025/01/Edtech_Assessment_Report_.Pdf
• Sadavar, M., & Shaikh, A. (2024). An Evaluation Of The Ed-Tech Sector In India. In Itm Web Of Conferences (Vol. 68, P. 01024). Edp Sciences.