Under PMKVY 4.0, the government imparts short-term training, upskilling and reskilling courses to improve employment opportunities in the AI space
As of December 2024, the government had disbursed INR 7.13 Cr to facilitate AI courses under the PMKVY 4.0 scheme
The government said that 4.34 Lakh candidates have successfully completed their courses in AI and Big Data Analytics under the FutureSkills PRIME initiative
The Centre informed the Parliament that 19,774 individuals have so far been trained in various artificial intelligence (AI) courses under the fourth iteration of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY 4.0).
Under the scheme, the government imparts short-term training, upskilling and reskilling courses to youngsters across the country to improve employment opportunities in the AI space.
Responding to a question, Jayant Chaudhary, minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship, said that the government disbursed INR 7.13 Cr, as of December 31, 2025, under the PMKVY 4.0 scheme for bridging AI talent gap.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar topped the charts and trained 2,561 and 2,055 candidates under the scheme, respectively. Tamil Nadu was third-placed with 2,109 “oriented” candidates, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with 1,735 and 1,726, respectively.
Under the PMKVY 4.0, the candidates were trained in courses such as AI (business intelligence analyst), AI (data architect), AI (data engineer), among others.
The minister also said that nearly 20.9 Lakh candidates have so far signed up on the FutureSkills PRIME portal. Of this, 8.96 Lakh individuals have registered for various courses and 4.34 Lakh candidates have successfully completed their courses in AI and Big Data Analytics. FutureSkills PRIME portal currently offers 157 courses in the two domains.
He also noted that the Directorate General of Training (DGT), in partnership with Microsoft and Edunet Foundation, have so far enrolled 442 trainees for a year-long AI programming assistant (AIPA) course under craftsmen training scheme (CTS) at 19 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs) across the country.
Chaudhary also said that the electronics and information technology ministry (MeitY) has collaborated with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and social media giant Meta to launch the “YuvAi initiative for Skilling and Capacity Building”. The initiative aims to address the AI talent gap in the country by empowering students and young developers to leverage open-source large language models (LLMs) to address real-world challenges.
Additionally, he also informed that a 7.5-hour micro-credential course for AI has been developed for all craftsman training scheme (CTS) trainees in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across the country.
This comes at a time when the government has pushed the pedal on upskilling India’s young force in AI technologies amid apprehensions of job disruptions. As a result, the Centre is focussing on reskilling and upskilling to avoid large scale job displacement.
Last week, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget 2025-26 speech, proposed the establishment of five new CoEs for skilling. This, experts believe, would help the country move beyond assembly lines to high-value production like semiconductor fabrication.
