AI literacy is essential for India’s growth and innovation

Source: The post AI literacy is essential for India’s growth and innovation has been created, based on the article “In the new reading and writing, what will India’s role be?” published in “Indian Express” on 29 March 2025. AI literacy is essential for India’s growth and innovation.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 3 – science and technology – Awareness in IT, Space, Computers, and Robotics.

Context: In 1947, India’s literacy rate was just 12%; today, it exceeds 75%. This remarkable increase has significantly boosted India’s economic growth, global competitiveness, and innovation. Now, with the rising prominence of artificial intelligence (AI), another critical shift emerges, highlighting the necessity of AI literacy for India’s next generation.

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Importance of AI Literacy:

1. Just as reading and writing were essential during the industrial era, AI literacy is vital in today’s AI-driven age.
2. Historically, literacy enabled economic mobility, political participation, and innovation. Similarly, AI literacy now determines economic competitiveness and technological leadership, shaping whether individuals actively contribute to the future or remain passive consumers.

Nature of AI Literacy:

1. AI literacy goes beyond coding or programming and emphasizes three key areas:

• Human-AI Collaboration: Understanding AI systems and working effectively with them.
• Critical AI Awareness: Interpreting AI-generated content critically to identify biases, fairness, and ethical issues.
• Problem-solving with AI: Creatively using AI to solve real-world challenges without needing programming skills.

2. AI literacy fundamentally involves problem-solving, abstraction, and systems thinking, aligning closely with computational thinking promoted globally since the early 2000s by scholars like Jeannette Wing.

Current Challenges in India:

1. India’s approach to computational thinking and AI education has been narrow, largely industry-focused, and often limited to IT-specific training programs.
2. Such an approach is inadequate, as AI now impacts all sectors, including education, workplaces, banking, legal systems, and entertainment.
3. Comprehensive AI literacy must therefore reach every segment of Indian society, irrespective of age, occupation, or location.

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Opportunity and Need for Strategic Action:

1. Historically, India has mainly provided back-office services and IT outsourcing, limiting its global innovation role.
2. AI offers India an opportunity to move beyond this limited role and emerge as a global leader in innovation.
3. Early examples like Wadhwani AI’s agricultural innovations and Sarvam AI’s generative AI technologiesdemonstrate India’s potential.
4. Realizing this potential, however, requires significant investment in AI education, research, and entrepreneurship.

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Proposed Initiatives:

1. A national AI literacy initiative is essential. Policymakers must integrate AI into school curricula, industries should prioritize workforce upskilling, and civil society needs to ensure equitable access to AI literacy.
2. Specific actionable steps include:

• Developing a national K-12 AI literacy curriculum accessible to all students.
• Establishing experiential AI maker labs and tinkering spaces nationwide.
• Investing in workforce reskilling and future-focused employment readiness.

2. Launching a culturally inclusive national AI literacy platform connecting government, business, education, and civil society stakeholders.

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Conclusion:

AI literacy is critical for India’s economic competitiveness, innovation, and societal wellbeing. Just as traditional literacy unlocked human potential, AI literacy presents India with a transformative opportunity, determining whether India will lead or lag behind globally in the AI era.

Question for practice:

Examine how AI literacy can shape India’s future economic competitiveness and societal development.