Deepening our commitment to India’s AI ambition

While building increasingly helpful and powerful AI, we have been guided by one key principle: the ultimate metric of AI’s progress isn’t just the size of model parameters, but also how people use this technology to drive positive transformation. At Google I/O Connect India 2026, we announced new initiatives and partnerships that demonstrate this commitment while bringing our latest advances to accelerate India’s AI ambition.

Empowering India’s learners and educators with frontier AI

Google DeepMind is bringing its rigorous AI Research Foundations curriculum to strengthen India’s premier AI talent. This free 56-hour program aims to help empower India’s students and AI builders to lead the nation’s AI ambitions from the front while fueling a global, India-originated AI-ready workforce. The program will help its learners build and fine-tune Large Language Models (LLMs), and drive high-impact AI research. Learners can earn industry-recognized Google Cloud Skill badges and certificates upon completion.

Globally, the curriculum has had over 38,000 enrollments, with learners reporting it supported their professional development.

Higher education institutions and industry organizations can incorporate AIRF into their own programs, tracking learner progress on Google Skills. IISc Bangalore has already started, while NASSCOM will also make AIRF available on Future Skills Prime.

The curriculum’s deployment is made possible, in part, via the Google.org AI Opportunity Fund in Asia-Pacific. Under this initiative, Google.org is supporting AVPN, a network of social investors, to scale world-class, research-backed education resources—including AIRF—across the region. In India, AVPN will work alongside local partners to deliver the training safely and effectively, creating a multiplier effect for learners across the country.