MSDE Collaborates with Meta to Provide AI Support to Skill India Mission

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

Oct 15, 2024 — 3 min read

MSDE and Meta Collaboration Skill India Mission AI Support

The Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) announced on 14 September that it has partnered with Meta to launch two significant projects: the creation of five Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) at National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs) in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Jodhpur, Chennai, and Kanpur; and the AI Assistant for the Skill India Mission.

The aim of the Ministry is to equip India's youth with the necessary skills to succeed in the current competitive landscape, according to Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, who commented on the cooperation. The Ministry is democratising access to cutting-edge technology and providing personalised learning pathways for the nation's youth by incorporating artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and mixed reality into the Skill India ecosystem. Today's collaboration with Meta is a big step in the right direction.

How this Partnership will Shape Up the India's AI ecosystem?

This collaboration will result in the development of a cutting-edge AI chatbot that will improve the learner experience on the Skill India Digital (SID) Portal and is powered by Meta's open-source Llama model. The chatbot, which will be incorporated into the SID Portal, provides users with round-the-clock support, facilitating easy access to course information, interactive Q&A for course materials, lecture summaries, and pertinent videos for review. The chatbot will be available on WhatsApp and support voice commands in Hindi, English, and Hinglish, making it more user-friendly for a wider variety of Indian consumers. Users can also look up particular course subjects, locate skill development facilities, look through job postings according to geography and interest, and get personalised feedback for ongoing development. Additionally, the chatbot will give the MSDE insightful information that will help them better optimise the platform. The chatbot will be developed and implemented by Sarvam AI, the AI assistant project's technical partner. It will undergo a six-month pilot programme.

It envisions a collaborative e-governance framework for adoption of impactful AI solutions with the potential to catalyse large-scale socio-economic transformation in line with India's AI Mission by making Meta's open-source AI models accessible to India's AI ecosystem. Additionally, these five CoEs at NSTIs will provide educators and students with the newest VR technology so they may learn new skills and improve on ones they already know in a secure, captivating setting. Through an easy-to-use digital interface, the AI assistant partnership seeks to enhance learning outcomes, expedite information access, and offer students seamless support. The five CoEs will also boost accessibility to skill development training, enhance participation, and offer realistic simulations.

Skill India Digital Portal

Vice President and Head of Public Policy of Meta India, Shivnath Thukral, stated that Meta is dedicated to utilising cutting-edge technologies like AI, VR, and MR to make a significant contribution to India's economic growth. The collaborations between Meta India and the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MDSE) demonstrate the company's dedication to closing the digital divide in education. By incorporating cutting-edge technologies like Open-Source Llama, the company hopes to empower educators and entrepreneurs in addition to students by giving them the resources they need to succeed in the modern, digitally native world.

With millions of students using the Skill India Digital Portal to obtain courses designed to increase their employability, the platform has emerged as a key component of the country's skilling ecosystem. By introducing the AI chatbot, MSDE and Meta are making great progress towards transforming the way students engage with the material and get ready for the future. Furthermore, in order to provide students and teachers with the newest technology and enable immersive and interactive learning experiences, Skillveri, the technical partner for setting up the CoEs, will supply state-of-the-art VR and MR materials, curriculum, and qualified personnel.