SRINAGAR: As many as 786 candidates in Jammu and Kashmir were enrolled or trained in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data Analytics (AI/BDA) under the FutureSkills PRIME programme during the last three years, of whom 416 completed their training and were certified, the Union Government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The figures were disclosed by Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada in a written reply to a question on AI skill development and capacity-building programmes across the country.
According to the State-wise data furnished by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Jammu and Kashmir recorded 786 enrolled/trained candidates and 416 completed/certified candidates under FutureSkills PRIME’s AI/BDA courses during the period.
The figures place JK well below several major States in AI skilling. Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of enrolled/trained candidates at 1,61,190, followed by Maharashtra at 68,460, Telangana at 68,306 and Karnataka at 46,534.
At the national level, the Government said more than 34 lakh candidates have registered on the FutureSkills PRIME portal, of whom more than 23 lakh have enrolled or trained in various emerging-technology courses and over 13 lakh have completed or obtained certification. Women account for 41 per cent of participants, while 86 per cent are from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
The programme, jointly initiated by MeitY and NASSCOM, provides skilling, reskilling and upskilling in emerging technologies including AI, Big Data Analytics, Internet of Things, cyber security, blockchain and augmented and virtual reality.
The Government said 22 C-DAC/NIELIT centres have been designated as Lead and Co-Lead Resource Centres for emerging technologies. Together, these centres have trained more than 32,000 government officials, including 5,821 in AI/BDA, besides 2,367 trainers and more than 40,400 candidates through over 420 bootcamps.
The Government is also expanding AI training infrastructure beyond established technology hubs. Under the IndiaAI FutureSkills pillar, 27 IndiaAI Data Labs have been established at NIELIT centres, where 6,051 candidates have been trained. A further 543 labs have been identified for establishment across ITIs and polytechnics in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
The Government has also said that the YUVA AI for All course has been completed by more than 26.5 lakh individuals through platforms including FutureSkills PRIME, Skill India and iGOT Karmayogi.
Under Mission Karmayogi, more than 1.7 crore government officials have been onboarded on the iGOT Karmayogi platform, which offers over 200 AI and emerging-technology courses. These courses have recorded more than 3.3 crore completions, with over 61 lakh officials completing at least one AI course.
The IndiaAI Fellowship scheme provides for 500 PhD, 5,000 postgraduate and 8,000 undergraduate fellowships. So far, 686 fellowships have been awarded across 178 participating institutions.
The Government has also approved 58 AI Centres of Excellence across States and Union Territories to strengthen AI innovation, industry-academia collaboration and the national AI talent pipeline.
The reply said the Government is simultaneously integrating AI into school, higher and technical education curricula and providing shared AI compute infrastructure, datasets and models under the IndiaAI Mission to support education, research and innovation.
