The Union education minister’s remarks underline a growing reliance on AI in learning, even as questions of access, capacity and equity remain unresolved.

Addressing a public forum this week, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan reiterated the government’s vision of artificial intelligence in education as “inclusive by design” and “sovereign by capability.” The framing seeks to position India as both technologically self-reliant and socially responsive at a moment when AI is rapidly reshaping learning systems worldwide.

According to the minister, AI is expected to play a central role in teaching, learning and skill development, from personalised educational tools to decision-support systems for educators. The stress, he argued, is on building indigenous AI capabilities rather than importing ready-made solutions, ensuring that technology aligns with India’s linguistic, cultural and economic diversity.

The rhetoric, however, sits uneasily with classroom realities. Digital access remains deeply uneven across regions and social groups. For many students, the basic conditions required for AI-enabled learning, such as stable internet connectivity, functional devices and trained teachers, are still absent. Without addressing these structural deficits, the promise of “inclusive” AI risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than reducing them.

The idea of “sovereign AI” reflects a broader concern about dependence on foreign platforms and models. Yet sovereignty in education technology cannot rest on intent alone. It demands sustained public investment, institutional capacity and clear regulatory frameworks, areas where progress has been uneven and often opaque.

As AI is increasingly woven into India’s education policy discourse, the challenge will be to move beyond aspirational language. Whether this push delivers meaningful change will depend on how seriously the state confronts long-standing inequities that no amount of technological optimism can, by itself, resolve.