India’s AI leap

Jaspreet Bindra, Co-Founder and CEO of Al&Beyond, launches Yuva.ai to foster nationwide AI understanding and critical thinking

- Tasneem Kanchwala

When the Government of India launched Yuva.ai — a mobile-first AI literacy platform developed in partnership with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) — it was not just another digital initiative.

Behind it was a curriculum years in the making, built by Al&Beyond, a company that has spent the better part of a decade trying to answer a deceptively simple question — does the average Indian understand what Al actually is?

Jaspreet Bindra, Co-Founder and CEO of Al&Beyond, spoke to The Free Press Journal on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit about what it took to build Yuva.ai, why most AI literacy programmes get it wrong, and why he believes the future belongs to those who question, not those who simply consume.

‘Al summit signals a shift’

For Bindra, the Summit itself was symbolic. “For decades technology conversations were defined in Silicon Valley and then interpreted for the rest of the world. Artificial intelligence changes that because its deepest impact will be in countries like India,” he said.

The distinction he draws between how advanced economies and India approach AI is telling. While the West debates productivity gains, India's priorities lie elsewhere. “In India it is closer to inclusion. We are thinking about students learning in their own language, farmers receiving advisory, health workers making better decisions and small businesses becoming competitive.”