President Murmu Launches ‘#SkillTheNation Challenge’ to Empower India with AI Readiness

Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu, announced the ‘#SkillTheNation Challenge’, urging citizens, policymakers, educators, professionals and youth to actively participate in India’s AI learning movement by enrolling in the SOAR (Skilling for AI Readiness) course on the Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH). She called the initiative a significant step towards equipping the nation with future-ready capabilities in Artificial Intelligence and advancing India’s journey towards a technologically empowered and inclusive society.

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship’s flagship programme SOAR – Skilling for AI Readiness, launched in July 2025, enables accessible AI learning for all through structured micro-credential courses.

SOAR is designed to make AI simple, ethical, responsible and aspirational. Over six months, more than 1.59 lakh learners across India have enrolled, with thousands completing certifications.

15 Members of Parliament who have completed the SOAR AI course module

Shri Jayant Chaudhary, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Minister of State for Education, has successfully completed the SOAR ‘AI to be Aware’ module. He nominated Shri Nara Lokesh Rao, Shri Gaurav Dwivedi, and Mr. Nitin Narang to take up the challenge, creating a cascading national movement.

Commenting on the occasion, Hon’ble Minister Shri Jayant Chaudhary said:

India’s future workforce must not only be digitally aware but AI confident. Through the ‘#SkillTheNation Challenge’, we want to inspire every citizen to embrace learning and prepare for an AI-enabled future. SOAR is not just a skilling programme; it is a national mission to build confidence, capability and curiosity in AI, ensuring that every learner — wherever they are — has the opportunity to benefit from this technology and contribute to the nation’s growth story. 

He further added:
“India’s future workforce must not only be digitally aware but AI confident. I am glad to have personally completed the SOAR AI learning module, and it has further strengthened my belief that learning must begin from leadership itself. It gives me great satisfaction to nominate my fellow colleagues to join this movement, so together we can inspire every citizen to embrace AI learning and prepare for an empowered, future-ready India.”

A group of 17 select students from PM SHRI Schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh received AI course certificates from the President of India.

15 Members of Parliament have completed the SOAR AI course module, reflecting strong leadership commitment towards AI readiness.

S. No.	Name of MP	House (Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha)
1	Shri Chandan Singh Chauhan	Lok Sabha
2	Ms. Swati Maliwal	Rajya Sabha
3	Shri Ummendaram Ram Beniwal	Lok Sabha
4	Shri Narayan K Bhandage	Rajya Sabha
5	Ms. Kamal Jeet Sehrawat	Lok Sabha
6	Ms. Manju Sharma	Lok Sabha
7	Ms. Shobhanaben Baraiya	Lok Sabha
8	Shri G. M. Harish Balayogi	Lok Sabha
9	Ms. Sangeeta Yadav	Rajya Sabha
10	Ms. Fauzia Khan	Rajya Sabha
11	Shri P. V. Abdul Wahab	Rajya Sabha
12	Shri Sujeet Kumar	Rajya Sabha
13	Ms. Bijuli Kalita Medhi	Lok Sabha
14	Shri Haris Beeran	Rajya Sabha
15	Shri P. P. Chaudhary	Lok Sabha

Cognizant and IBM Launch Global FinOps CoE To Help Enterprises with Modernization Challenges

Cognizant and IBM have teamed up to launch a Global FinOps Center of Excellence (CoE). This center is designed to help enterprises manage the complexities of modernizing legacy applications and adopting enterprise-scale Al solutions.

The CoE aims to help global clients address challenges such as escalating costs, Al readiness, cloud governance, and architecture modernization . By leveraging the strengths of both Cognizant and IBM, the CoE helps clients operate more efficiently and innovate quickly and responsibly.

The CoE aims to modernize mainframe applications to increase agility and innovation through code modernization. This involves leveraging IBM's watsonx Code Assistant for Z to support the adoption of a hybrid cloud strategy and maximize the value of mainframe investments.

The initiative aims to provide visibility and accountability over cloud costs, optimize usage, and implement real-time production adjustments to eliminate waste in multi-cloud environments. This helps organizations manage cloud expenses more effectively and ensures efficient resource utilization.

The initiative also includes implementing AI governance to ensure AI systems are fair, transparent, and compliant with quality standards.

This collaboration leverages IBM's FinOps software and Cognizant's cloud and developer platforms to help clients transition to modern architectures and streamline cloud management operations.

Alongside the CoE, Cognizant launched extensions of its Cognizant Skygrade™ and Flowsource™ platforms. These extensions are designed to integrate with IBM's Apptio, Turbonomic, watsonx.governance, and watsonx Code Assistant for Z. This integration brings together Cognizant's deep engineering capabilities with IBM's powerful tools to help clients transition to modern architectures and streamline cloud management operations.

For an uninitiated, FinOps (short for Financial Operations) is an operational framework and cultural practice that aims to maximize the business value of cloud computing while enabling financial accountability and data-driven decision-making. FinOps is sometimes referred to as Cloud Financial Management, Cloud Cost Management, or Cloud Optimization. The goal is to get the most value out of cloud investments, driving efficient growth and innovation.

India Ranks 3rd in Asia-Pacific on Artificial Intelligence Readiness Index

The rankings in the Saleforce Asia Pacific AI Readiness Index placed Singapore as the region’s leader at 76% followed by Hongkong and India. ranks at number 3 within the region

The report, commissioned by Salesforce and prepared by TRPC, evaluated eight APAC economies -- Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand and how these nations fare relative to each other in Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness.

ASIA PACIFIC AI READINESS INDEX – OVERALL SCORES AND RANKINGS

[caption id="attachment_129670" align="aligncenter" width="675"] Salesforce.com[/caption]

Ranked at 3 in the report, India is one of few global economies to have implemented and perfected automated processes across many different industries, it has a large number of AI startups. However, the country ranks low on dynamism and innovation in this space, impacting its business readiness.

Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and India score high in terms of consumer awareness of AI but relatively low in consumer understanding of AI.

CONSUMER, BUSINESS, AND GOVERNMENT SCORES AND RANKINGS

In terms of sentiment, positive outlooks towards AI are highest in Thailand and India – two economies in which
consumers interact primarily with AI technologies geared towards entertainment (home assistants, geolocation applications, etc.) – and lowest in Singapore and Malaysia – two economies that are increasingly confronted to more intrusive facets of AI, such as AI-enabled surveillance.

In terms of innovation, India’s AI ecosystem is held back by the lack of existing skilled professionals who can develop innovative AI solutions. Other key findings:

• 76% of companies in India feel the shortage of skilled professionals is slowing down AI adoption


• Indian consumers are largely aware of AI technologies and their benefits, thanks in part to entertainment-driven products and services.


• India is among the most prepared economies in terms of government readiness.

AI Startups

Indian AI startups are constrained by the fact that most small and mid-sized businesses cannot afford to adopt or implement AI systems, said the report.

Currently, India leads the way in terms of number of AI start-ups despite having moderate scores for all other indicators suggesting that much more could be accomplished if companies were to have the business environment they
need for their innovative potential to flourish.

It is worth noting that Malaysia ranks highest in terms of venture capital availability and second-to-last in number of AI start-ups, indicating a clear disconnect between business potential and business capacity. The same can be said of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, where there is much room for growth. This is not the case in India and Australia, where capital and investments are much more aligned with actual enterprise creation.