Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined a comprehensive vision for India’s future on Independence Day, including AI skilling for 10 million youth, expanded women’s income programmes, and accelerated energy and security initiatives, signalling a push towards modernisation and self-reliance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his Independence Day address from the Red Fort to unveil a broad set of targets spanning artificial intelligence, education, sport, civil defence, energy and women’s development, presenting them as part of a longer push for self-reliance and modernisation.
Among the most immediate measures, he said the government would train 10 million young people in AI skills over the next year. He also announced free online coaching for competitive exams, saying the plan would link digital public infrastructure, teachers and available talent to create a nationwide support network for students who cannot afford private tuition.
Modi also promised a national talent hunt for children aged five to 15, covering villages, towns and schools, with selected youngsters to receive specialist coaching. He said India should pay greater attention to sports where it has little or no Olympic presence. In a separate message on AI earlier this year, he framed the technology as something that should be democratised and governed ethically, with the government stressing skilling and re-skilling as safeguards against job disruption.
On security and industry, Modi said civil defence systems needed a major overhaul to reflect the changing nature of warfare, which he said could now threaten refineries, banks, data centres and factories as well as border areas. He also said three semiconductor plants were already producing for export and that five to eight more could come up over the next seven to eight years. On energy, he set a goal of 100 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity by 2047 and said India aimed to bring five new reactors online within this decade. Business Standard has reported that the speech also included a focus on clean energy self-sufficiency, with Modi saying India had reached its 2030 target of sourcing 50% of its energy capacity from clean resources five years early.
Modi also raised the target for his women’s income programme, saying the government had already exceeded its earlier goal of creating 300 million “Lakhpati Didis”, or women earning at least 100,000 rupees a year, and would now aim for 600 million. He said the expansion would help reshape the rural economy, as the government continues to cast the initiative as a central part of its development agenda.
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