On April 29, speaking at the YUGM Innovation Conclave co-hosted by the Ministry of Education and the Wadhwani Foundation in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence that the efforts to enhance India’s innovation capacity and its role in deep-tech would gain momentum through this event.
The Prime Minister congratulated the Wadhwani Foundation, IITs, and all stakeholders involved in these initiatives.
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Founded in the early 2000s by Romesh Wadhwani, the Wadhwani Foundation is a global non-profit dedicated to accelerating economic growth and job creation across emerging economies.
In an exclusive interaction with LiveMint Dr Ajay Kela, CEO and Board member, Wadhwani Foundation, spoke about the Foundation’s two-decade journey in India.
Q: How has the journey been so far since inception?
A: When I joined in 2010, we were a one-country, one-initiative, one-program. The country was India; the initiative was National Entrepreneurship Network designed to inspire and equip students with the skills and knowledge to become successful entrepreneurs.
We were a small team of barely 10–15 people. Today, we are working in probably a dozen countries or more with half a dozen initiatives, probably 10-12 programs under them. So that is how we have scaled. What has never changed, however, is our core mission, which is to enable people to secure dignified jobs and, through that, transform their families and future generations.
Q: Could you give me an example of the kind of people you’re focusing on?
A: On one side of the equation, we work with the vulnerable – these are 18-year-olds that finished high school or finished 10th grade and are looking to support themselves and their family, but they don’t go to college.
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We help people acquire skills so that they can command these level, mid-skill roles that have a trajectory. These aren’t daily wage roles, and they’re not high-end data science jobs either. They are stepping-stone careers, for example, a nurse’s aide or a home healthcare worker who can progress to becoming a nurse, and even a doctor if ambitious enough. It’s about building a ladder of opportunity.
Q: How do you identify which job roles to train them for?
A: We pick job roles that we know are going to be in demand. We start with employers and ask them what they are hiring for today, what their outlook is for the next three to five years, and what skills those roles will demand. Based on that, we develop programs, curriculums and then even influence the training organisations.
The key here is to know what the hyperlocal demand is.
Skilling is just one side of the equation. The other is job creation. While on the skilling side, we work with the vulnerable, this side we are working with the creme layer of society – top students and colleges because they are the ones that will create ‘Silicon Valley’ kinds of companies.
Q: Beyond entrepreneurship, another area you’ve worked on is research-driven job creation, right?
A: Yes, we have. India produces world-class research via PhDs and postdocs that ends up in papers and patents, not in the market. That’s a criminal waste. This research holds the potential to impact people’s lives, and of course, lead to business and job growth, but it wasn’t happening at all in India.
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With this thought, we set up the Wadhwani Center for Biosciences and Biotechnology at IIT Bombay in 2015 to support projects with commercialisation potential. We funded 120 projects based on the sole selection criteria being:
Q- How has this translateed into startups, and job creation?
A- So far, 15 of those 120 have been commercialised, leading to 10 startups, 5 products and 40 more in the pipeline. This gave us confidence to amplify this approach.
In fact, at YUGM – an event we did in collaboration with Ministry of Education earlier this year, PM Modi acknowledged Wadhwani Foundation’s efforts towards research commercialisation. That validation reinforced that our model of supporting translatable research, rather than leaving it to languish in academic journals, can be a real driver of jobs and innovation in India.
Q What does the philanthropy landscape in India, especially in the tech and education sector, look like right now?
A: In India, philanthropy in the education has primarily been focused on K12. Even though the focus on improving early schooling by developing teachers and building stronger primary education systems is important, this needs to be complemented with work on jobs and employability. This is where the Wadhwani Foundation fills the gap.
Q: How important is tech for your mission and what is the role that AI can play here?
A: Essentially, technology is the tool that we are leveraging to deliver quality at scale.
In a traditional setup, even an exceptional faculty can only teach 30 students. However, when you digitise this – use an AI tutor that is available 24×7 and is able to personalise learning for every student – you transform education entirely. We are already seeing similar shifts in other industries. E-commerce has transformed retail access. Platforms like Uber have transformed mobility.
In the same way, we believe AI will transform learning, skilling, and entrepreneurship. Our Genie AI platform is designed exactly for this; to act as a personalized guide, counselor, and mentor, available to millions of learners and entrepreneurs. It serves as a knowledge dissemination and mentorship platform with three layers: short-form video content, a family of AI agents (mentors and tutors available 24/7), and a human layer where experts and mentors from our WIN centers guide innovators.
Q: India is projected to be the third-largest economy. What structural reforms and policy decisions are needed to achieve that goal?
A: I mean, there will be a gamut of them, but I will focus primarily on the jobs, employment and skilling – where our demographic dividend can be leveraged. India is a young country, with the median age of 29, which also makes us a young workforce. If we can leverage this human capital that is available to us where the productivity of each of these individuals is dramatically increased through their own capacity.
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We’ve already seen how outsourcing and IT services put India on the global map. That happened because we had a skilled workforce that could meet global demand. Now, we need to replicate that success in other growing sectors. To do that, we need three things: massive investment in skilling, strong industry-academia linkages, and policy frameworks that encourage lifelong learning and upskilling.
Q: Wadhwani Foundation is working in India and 13-14 other countries as well. There must be some learning from other countries that you want to replicate in India or some learnings from India that you want to replicate there. What is your say on this?
A: We get exposed to what works and what doesn’t work in each country.
Essentially, technology is the tool that we are leveraging to deliver quality at scale.
For example, in Brazil, the government has mandated for every company to fund an apprenticeship program where a 12th grader who doesn’t pursue higher education spends four days a week apprenticing in a company, and one day in formal training. The stipend is paid by industry, which keeps companies motivated to engage seriously. As a result, apprentices graduate job- ready, and the program is not just on paper, it works in practice.
India also has apprenticeship schemes, but they are underutilized. If we could adapt elements of the Brazilian model here, it could transform how industry participates in skilling.