National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics & IT, Government of India, has launched the innovation challenge every youngster has been waiting for, the ‘YUVAi- Youth for Unnati and Vikas with AI’ program. The programs aimed to address the growing skills gap and build digital readiness among the next generation.  

YUVAi is aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of AI, to equip school students from classes 8th to 12th across the nation with AI skills, and empower them to become human-centric designers and users of AI. In addition, the program offers an applied learning experience for students to understand and identify how AI technology can tackle critical problems and lead to the inclusive development of the nation.  

The program will be conducted in three phases. In the initial phase, teachers will be selected to identify students from their respective schools and share their details with the organizing team. Next, online orientation sessions will be conducted for registered students around core AI concepts by experts to facilitate understanding of the ideation process. Finally, students will be encouraged to submit ideas (individually or in teams of 2) through a 120-second video explaining a proposed AI-enabled solution for any one of the eight core themes- agriculture, healthcare, education, environment and clean energy, transportation, rural development, smart cities and law and justice.  

Shortlisted students will attend online deep dive AI training in the second phase. A 3-day face-to-face boot camp will be organized to provide adequate mentorship and guidance by YUVAi coaches. After the mentorship camps, students will use this newly gained knowledge to develop AI-enabled innovations/projects on any of the eight core themes and submit final entries. Finally, the most innovative AI-based solutions will be announced and invited to a national showcase and felicitation ceremony. 

In its last iteration (Responsible AI for Youth), the program offered select students the opportunity to travel to Gandhinagar, Gujarat, to interact with and showcase their solutions to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, at the Digital India Week 2022. As a part of the program, 20 students from all across the country also got the opportunity to travel to Delhi to interact with and present their work to Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hon’ble Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Railways and Communications and Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Hon’ble Minister of State for Electronics and IT and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. 

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