The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has unveiled an AI-powered chatbot on WhatsApp, named Skill India Assistant (SIA), aimed at expanding access to digital skill development across India. This initiative is a collaboration between the ministry, tech giant Meta, and Indian GenAI startup SarvamAI.
SIA functions as a “digital skills mentor” and is available in English, Hindi, and Hinglish. It has been built using Meta’s open-source Llama large language model, developed in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and implemented by SarvamAI.
The chatbot provides personalized guidance on skills, job listings, course recommendations, quizzes, and nearby training centers. It supports voice notes and text input, making it more accessible. It covers a wide range of sectors including entrepreneurship, AI, IT, banking, and agriculture. Users can begin interacting with SIA by messaging +91 8448684032 on WhatsApp.
This move aligns with the government’s broader push to integrate AI into Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). Other recent initiatives include the IndiaAI Compute platform, IndiaAI FutureSkills, and the Bhashini project, which aims to offer AI-based services in 22 Indian languages. The government has also partnered with Meta to set up a Center for GenAI at IIT Jodhpur and selected SarvamAI to build an Indic large language model (LLM) as part of India’s AI ecosystem development strategy.
