Your AI Learning Path
Start from zero. Go at your own pace. All resources are free. You can follow this path on the phone or laptop you already use, on everyday networks, from any city in India.
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Hub copy and curated lists last reviewed: 2 June 2026.
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Beginner — AI Basics
36 resourcesUnderstand what AI actually is, try free tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, and learn to use AI in your daily work or studies. Works on any phone or laptop — no expensive hardware, no paid subscriptions.
AI for Talent Acquisition — LinkedIn Learning (Free Trial)
LinkedIn Learning's AI for HR track covers: using AI to write job descriptions, sourcing passive candidates with AI tools, reducing screening time with automated shortlisting, and predicting candidate success. India's IT and startup hiring teams are already using these workflows. Free 30-day trial available.
How to Hire AI/ML Engineers in India — NASSCOM Guide
NASSCOM's practical guide for Indian HR teams hiring their first AI engineers: what to look for in a data scientist vs ML engineer vs AI researcher, how to evaluate GitHub portfolios, which skills actually matter vs buzzwords, typical salary bands by city (Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai), and where to find them (LinkedIn, Kaggle, Unstop, IIT placements).
Avoiding Bias in AI-Assisted Hiring — Free Course (Google)
Google's module on AI bias in recruitment: how resume screening tools can discriminate by gender, caste, or region, India-specific bias risks (name-based filtering, college tier bias), and how to audit AI hiring tools before deploying them. Directly relevant for Indian companies under DPDP Act obligations for fair data processing.
India's National AI Strategy — NITI Aayog (Full Document, Free)
The foundational document for all Indian AI policy. NITI Aayog's 'National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence' (2018, updated 2021) defines the #AIForAll vision, 5 focus sectors (agriculture, healthcare, education, smart cities, smart mobility), key risks, and governance framework. Mandatory reading for anyone working in AI policy, government tech, or regulatory affairs in India.
DPDP Act 2023 — Complete Policy Analysis for AI Practitioners
India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 is the primary law governing AI systems that process personal data. This analysis covers: what counts as personal data in an AI context, consent requirements for ML training datasets, data localisation obligations, the Data Protection Board's enforcement powers, and comparison with GDPR. Essential for policy analysts advising AI companies.
Adobe Firefly — AI for Indian Creative Professionals (Free Trial)
Adobe Firefly is the safest generative AI for commercial creative work — trained on licensed content, so images are safe for client projects without copyright risk. Free in Creative Cloud. Covers: text-to-image, Generative Fill in Photoshop, text effects, and generative background in Premiere Pro. Adobe offers 60-day free trial and student pricing at ₹1,596/month.
Canva AI — Design, Presentations & Social Content (Free)
Canva's AI suite is now free for the core tools: Magic Write (copy), Magic Design (layouts), Text to Image, and AI video backgrounds. Canva is already India's most-used design tool — this covers how to use the AI features for social media posts, pitch decks, reels thumbnails, and marketing collateral. Canva Pro is free for Indian students via the Education programme.
AI for Video Creators — CapCut, Runway, and InVideo (India Guide)
Three AI video tools relevant for Indian creators: (1) CapCut AI — free, works on mobile, Hindi text-to-speech and auto-captions. (2) InVideo AI — Indian startup, text-to-video, ₹2,500/month, used by 7M+ creators. (3) Runway Gen-3 — professional video AI for ads and brand films. Comparison of pricing, quality, and use cases for YouTube, Instagram Reels, and corporate video.
AI in Government Services — NASSCOM & MeitY Playbook (Free)
NASSCOM and MeitY's joint playbook on deploying AI in Indian government services: citizen-facing chatbots (lessons from MyGov Saathi), AI for grievance redressal, document processing at scale (Aadhaar integration), and procurement rules for government AI projects. Covers procurement process under GFR 2017 and GeM portal for AI solutions. Mandatory reading for government officers working on digital transformation.
iGOT Karmayogi — AI & Data Literacy for Government Officers (Free)
iGOT Karmayogi is the Government of India's official learning platform for civil servants. The AI and data literacy courses are free for all central government employees. Covers: what AI is (non-technical), AI in public policy, data-driven governance, and digital transformation case studies from Indian states. Verified by DOPT. Login with your official government email.
Smart India Hackathon — How to Submit a Winning AI Problem Statement
Guide for government officers submitting problem statements to Smart India Hackathon. Covers: how to frame an AI solvable problem (not just a software request), what data to provide, IP ownership of solutions, how to convert winning prototypes into procurement, and follow-through with the winning team. Past winning AI solutions included crop disease detection, legal document digitisation, and grievance routing.
AI Strategy for Business Leaders — McKinsey & BCG Reports (Free)
McKinsey Global Institute and BCG have published the most widely-cited AI strategy frameworks — both are free to read. MGI's 'The Age of AI' and BCG's 'AI at Scale' cover: how to identify AI use cases with highest ROI, build vs buy decisions, change management for AI adoption, and India-specific insights on AI readiness across BFSI, retail, and manufacturing. Non-technical. Designed for C-suite and board.
AI Fundamentals for Business Leaders — Microsoft Learn (Free)
Microsoft's free 6-module path for business executives: what AI/ML actually is (without mathematics), how to evaluate AI vendor claims, data strategy for AI, AI governance and risk management, and building AI-ready teams. Designed for CXOs, not engineers. Takes ~4 hours. Comes with a LinkedIn-shareable Microsoft certificate.
NASSCOM AI Adoption Barometer — India Enterprise Report (Free)
NASSCOM's annual AI adoption survey across 500+ Indian enterprises. The 2025 report covers: which sectors are leading (BFSI, IT services, retail), average AI ROI reported by Indian companies, barriers to adoption (talent, data quality, trust), and what separates AI leaders from laggards. Free PDF download. Essential context for any Indian executive making AI investment decisions in 2026.
Google AI Essentials (Free Certificate)
Google's official 5-course AI certificate on Coursera — completely free to audit. Covers what AI is, how large language models work, using Gemini in daily tasks, and responsible AI basics. No coding. Perfect first course for anyone in India.
AI for Everyone — Andrew Ng (Free Audit)
DeepLearning.AI's most popular non-technical AI course. Andrew Ng explains AI strategy, machine learning, and what AI can/can't do — in plain language. Free to audit on Coursera. ~6 hours total. Ideal for managers, business owners, and anyone curious about AI.
Introduction to Generative AI — Google Cloud (Free)
Google Cloud's 45-minute free course explaining what generative AI is, how it differs from traditional ML, and how to use Google tools like Vertex AI. No prior experience needed. Available in English, with partial Hindi captions.
Microsoft AI Fundamentals (AI-900) — Free Learning Path
Microsoft's official free self-paced AI learning path covering AI concepts, machine learning, computer vision, NLP, and conversational AI. Prepares you for the AI-900 certification. ~10 hours. Works well on mobile, ideal for learners on limited bandwidth.
ChatGPT Basics: How to Use AI Tools at Work (Free)
OpenAI's free beginner guide to using ChatGPT — writing, summarising, brainstorming, and problem solving. Includes an India-focused use-case guide: drafting emails in English/Hindi, GST queries, and business planning. No signup required to start.
Gemini for Google Workspace — India SME Quickstart
Google's free training for using Gemini inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Meet. Covers writing assistants, summarisation, and data analysis — no coding at all. Google Workspace has a free tier available to Indian businesses.
Microsoft Copilot for Everyday Work (Free Guide)
Microsoft's free guide to using Copilot in Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams. Covers writing, summarising meetings, building spreadsheets with AI, and creating presentations. Microsoft 365 basic tier is free for Indian students.
Google Prompting Essentials Certificate (Free)
Google's short free course on writing effective AI prompts. Covers the 5-step prompting framework, zero/few-shot prompting, and chain-of-thought techniques. Comes with a shareable Google certificate. Available for free to Indian learners.
Anthropic's Claude: Introduction and Prompt Guide (Free)
Anthropic's free documentation and beginner guide to using Claude — writing, analysis, coding help, and research. Claude has a generous free tier with no credit card required. Great alternative to ChatGPT; often gives more detailed, nuanced answers.
Responsible AI: Avoiding Bias in AI (Google, Free)
Google's free 45-minute module on understanding AI bias, fairness, and responsible AI use. Covers real examples relevant to India: language bias, demographic bias in hiring tools, and how to spot AI errors. Essential before deploying any AI in work.
Meta AI Literacy: Understanding Large Language Models
Meta's free educational resource on how LLMs (like ChatGPT and Gemini) actually work — tokens, training data, hallucinations, and limitations. No maths required. Helps you understand WHY AI sometimes gives wrong answers and how to verify output.
NASSCOM GenAI Primer for India — Free
NASSCOM's India-specific introduction to Generative AI: what it means for Indian industries, language challenges (22+ official languages), use cases for BFSI, healthcare, agriculture, and education. Free PDF report + online modules.
AI for Indian Languages: Bhashini Introduction (Free)
Government of India's Bhashini platform brings AI translation, speech, and text tools for all 22 scheduled Indian languages — free for citizens. This intro guide explains how to use Bhashini for your mother tongue content creation.
AI Ethics and Safety — Short Course (Anthropic, Free)
Anthropic's primer on AI safety, alignment, and responsible deployment. Covers what AI can go wrong, why 'hallucinations' happen, and how to use AI responsibly at work. Free, ~2 hours. Highly relevant for government officers and enterprise decision-makers.
Kaggle: Intro to AI and Machine Learning (Free)
Kaggle's completely free beginner track. Start from 'what is machine learning' to running your first model — no setup needed, runs in the browser. Used by 15+ million data learners worldwide. Works perfectly on slow internet via Kaggle Notebooks.
NASSCOM FutureSkills AI/ML Curriculum
NASSCOM's flagship AI/ML path from fundamentals to advanced deployment. Free certificates, self-paced modules, and industry-recognised credentials.
Google Experience AI for Educators
Google's free K-12 AI curriculum with classroom activities, teacher guides, and student worksheets. No prior ML knowledge required.
NASSCOM AI for MSMEs Track
Practical AI and automation course for small businesses: inventory, customer support, and financial workflows. Free, self-paced.
Google Prompting Essentials (India)
Google's short course on writing effective AI prompts. Ideal for business owners who want to use ChatGPT-style tools without coding.
Digital India AI Skilling Initiative
MeitY's skilling programme for public servants; AI fundamentals, responsible AI, and digital governance modules.
NASSCOM AI for Creative Professionals
Content, design, and agency workflows with AI. Covers Midjourney, Firefly, Sora, and AI copywriting — from NASSCOM's creative track.
Adobe Firefly & Generative AI for Design (India)
Adobe's official India training on Generative Fill, text-to-image, and AI tools inside Creative Cloud.
Intermediate — AI for Work
30 resourcesMove from casual use to structured workflows. Learn prompt engineering, build simple AI apps, use APIs from OpenAI and Anthropic, and automate work tasks. Light coding — Python basics helpful but not required for all courses.
Writing AI-Proof Job Descriptions for Indian Tech Roles
Practical guide: how to write JDs that attract strong AI/ML candidates in India. Common mistakes (asking for 5 years of LLM experience), what senior Indian engineers look for (remote options, tech stack, team quality), how to use ChatGPT to draft and iterate JDs without introducing bias, and benchmarking against competing offers. Includes templates for ML Engineer, AI Product Manager, and Data Scientist.
AI Recruitment Tools Available in India — Comparison
Overview of AI recruitment tools used by Indian companies: iRecommend (HCL), Darwinbox AI (homegrown Indian HR AI), HireQuotient, Keka AI, and global tools like HireVue. What each does, pricing in INR, DPDP compliance status, and which large Indian IT companies and startups use them. Helps HR teams make build-vs-buy decisions.
Global AI Regulation Tracker — Stanford HAI (Free)
Stanford Human-Centered AI Institute's free global AI policy database tracks AI regulations across 60+ countries. Directly compare India's AI governance approach with the EU AI Act, US Executive Order on AI, China's GenAI regulations, and UK's pro-innovation framework. Updated regularly. Essential reference for India's policy community engaging with international AI governance forums.
MeitY's AI Advisory on LLMs — What It Means in Practice
MeitY's 2024 advisory on Large Language Models is India's first regulatory signal on Generative AI. This explainer covers: what the advisory actually requires (vs what media reported), which companies it applies to, the 'consent-based labelling' provision for AI-generated content, and what a future Indian AI Act might look like based on this advisory. Includes comparison with EU AI Act Annex III.
AI Governance: Reading List for Indian Policy Professionals
Curated reading list for Indian AI policy analysts: (1) NITI Aayog Responsible AI reports, (2) NASSCOM AI Ethics framework, (3) IEEE Ethically Aligned Design, (4) Brookings India AI governance papers, (5) ORF (Observer Research Foundation) AI policy briefs, (6) ICRIER tech policy papers. All free, all India-relevant. Covers safety, fairness, accountability, and transparency.
Prompting for Visual AI — A Creative's Guide (Midjourney, Firefly, DALL-E)
How to write prompts that actually produce great images — specific to advertising, brand identity, editorial illustration, and social media content. Covers: style references, aspect ratios for Indian social platforms (Instagram 1:1, Reels 9:16, WhatsApp 1:1), how to describe Indian faces and settings without stereotyping, and prompt structures that work in Adobe Firefly (the only tool safe for commercial work).
AI for Indian Language Content Creation — Bhashini + Sarvam
Practical guide for creators making content in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, or Bengali. Covers: Bhashini's free TTS (text-to-speech) for voiceovers in 22 languages, Sarvam AI's speech synthesis for professional narration, AI dubbing workflows for YouTube (dub one video into 5 languages), and using Claude/Gemini to write scripts in Hinglish. India's regional language content economy is growing 3x faster than English.
AI for Citizen Services — Case Studies from Indian States
Six detailed case studies of AI deployed in Indian state governments: (1) Andhra Pradesh's RTGS fraud detection, (2) Maharashtra's AI crop insurance (PMFBY), (3) Telangana's Dharani land records AI, (4) Kerala's AI health diagnostics in PHCs, (5) Tamil Nadu's AI traffic management in Chennai, (6) Gujarat's AI for MSME loan approvals. What worked, what failed, and procurement lessons for other states.
Responsible AI for Government — NITI Aayog Framework
NITI Aayog's Responsible AI for All framework specifically addresses government AI deployment: algorithmic accountability in public sector decisions, explainability requirements for welfare scheme targeting, audit trails for AI-assisted administrative orders, and citizen redressal mechanisms when AI makes errors. Directly applicable to any officer implementing AI in a government programme.
AI Risk and Governance for Indian Boards — IIM Approach
IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore have developed board-level AI governance frameworks for Indian companies. Covers: AI risk taxonomy (operational, reputational, regulatory), board oversight structures for AI, what questions directors should ask management about AI, SEBI disclosure implications for listed companies, and India's emerging AI liability framework under the DPDP Act. Non-technical, designed for independent directors.
Building an AI-Ready Organisation in India — Practical Playbook
How Indian companies are structuring their AI teams: centralised CoE (TCS, Infosys model) vs embedded AI (Swiggy, Razorpay model), whether to hire a Chief AI Officer, how to assess internal AI readiness (data infrastructure, talent, culture), and how to sequence the first 3 AI use cases. Draws on 50+ Indian company case studies from NASSCOM and YourStory's tech leadership coverage.
Prompt Engineering for Developers — DeepLearning.AI (Free)
Built by OpenAI and DeepLearning.AI. Teaches systematic prompt engineering: zero-shot, few-shot, chain-of-thought, and structured outputs using the ChatGPT API. Free, ~1.5 hours, runs in browser with free API credits included. The most-referenced prompt course globally.
Kaggle: Feature Engineering + Pandas for AI (Free)
Kaggle's free hands-on ML path for working with real data: cleaning, feature selection, and building your first prediction model. All runs in Kaggle Notebooks — no local setup, no cost. Perfect for Indian learners on shared computers or limited hardware.
Google ML Crash Course (Updated 2024, Free)
Google's flagship free ML course. 15+ hours covering supervised learning, neural networks, fairness, and production ML with TensorFlow. Uses real datasets, interactive exercises, and video lessons. Fully free — no certificate required but highly respected in India tech hiring.
Building Systems with ChatGPT API — DeepLearning.AI (Free)
How to build multi-step AI systems: classification chains, moderation, Q&A bots, and customer service workflows. Uses the ChatGPT API. Free, ~3 hours. Directly applicable to Indian customer service automation and enterprise chat applications.
LangChain for LLM Application Development (Free)
Andrew Ng + Harrison Chase teach LangChain — the most-used framework for building AI apps with LLMs. Covers chains, agents, memory, and document Q&A. Free, ~3 hours. India startups use LangChain extensively for enterprise chatbots and RAG systems.
Anthropic Claude API: Prompt Engineering Advanced Guide
Anthropic's official technical guide to getting the best results from Claude. Covers system prompts, XML structuring, multi-turn conversations, tool use, and handling edge cases. Free reference, directly usable with Claude's free API tier.
Hugging Face NLP Course — Chapter 1–4 (Free)
Hugging Face's free course on transformers and NLP. No heavy GPU needed for chapters 1–4 which run on free Colab. Directly relevant for Indian language AI work — the Hugging Face library powers AI4Bharat's IndicBERT and most India NLP research.
AI for Finance and Accounting — Kaggle + Google (Free)
Practical AI workflows for finance professionals: anomaly detection, forecasting, document processing, and fraud detection. Combines Kaggle notebooks (free) with Google Sheets + Gemini for analysis. Perfect for CA, CPA, and BFSI professionals in India.
AI-Assisted Research and Academic Writing (Anthropic/OpenAI)
How to use Claude and ChatGPT for literature reviews, citation management, paper drafting, and peer review responses. Covers academic integrity guidelines, how to disclose AI use in Indian journals (UGC norms), and prompts for Scopus-level research.
Microsoft Azure AI Services for Developers — Free Learning Path
Microsoft's free hands-on path: Azure OpenAI, Vision, Speech, and Language services. Includes 12-month free Azure credits for students. Directly usable for building India enterprise AI apps with compliant data residency (India Central / South).
AI for Hiring: Using Tools Responsibly (NASSCOM, Free)
NASSCOM's guide for Indian HR professionals: using AI for JD writing, resume screening, and interview prep — with guardrails against bias. Covers DPDP compliance and MeitY guidelines for AI in employment decisions. Free PDF + online modules.
AI for Creative Professionals: Adobe & Canva (Free Courses)
Adobe's free Creative Cloud AI tutorials + Canva's free AI design certification. Covers Firefly text-to-image, Magic Edit, background removal, and Canva's AI presentation tools. Adobe offers 60-day free trials for India students, with student pricing thereafter.
OpenAI Cookbook — Practical Recipes for the ChatGPT API (Free)
OpenAI's open-source collection of practical code examples: embeddings, fine-tuning, RAG systems, and API best practices. All runnable in free Google Colab. Essential reference for Indian developers building on GPT-4o, o1, and GPT-3.5-turbo.
IIT Madras: Data Science and Programming (Free Online, Tamil/English)
IIT Madras's free foundational course on Python, data analysis, and statistics — the prerequisite for AI/ML. Completely free online; paid only if you want the degree. Used by 30,000+ Indian students. Available in Tamil and English.
NPTEL: Deep Learning (IIT courses, Free + Certificate)
India's NPTEL platform offers free AI/ML courses from IIT professors (IIT Madras, Bombay, Kharagpur). Audio in English, subtitles in Hindi. Earn a certificate with proctored exam for ~₹1000. Trusted by Indian industry for hiring.
IIT Madras BS Data Science & AI
India's most-enrolled online AI degree from IIT Madras. Structured, affordable, with live proctored exams and placement support.
IndiaAI Builder Tracks & Hackathons
Official IndiaAI hackathons, builder curricula, and sandboxes for developers working on Indian AI products.
Google ML Crash Course (India Edition)
Google's free ML course tailored with India use-cases. Covers TensorFlow, feature engineering, and production ML pipelines.
IndiaAI GovTech AI Programme
Official AI training for government officials: policy, data governance, procurement of AI systems, and citizen-facing applications.
Advanced — AI Engineering
13 resourcesTrain, fine-tune, and deploy ML models. Build RAG systems, LLM-powered agents, and Indian-language AI with AI4Bharat. Needs Python proficiency. Free GPU on Kaggle/Colab — enough for serious practice without buying your own hardware.
Fast.ai: Practical Deep Learning for Coders (Free, Part 1)
The world's best hands-on DL course — free, no paywalls, no sign-up. Jeremy Howard teaches you to train state-of-the-art image, text, and tabular models from scratch using PyTorch. Runs on free Kaggle GPUs. Used by hundreds of Indian AI researchers and engineers.
Hugging Face: NLP Advanced + Fine-tuning (Free)
Chapters 5–9 of the HF NLP course: fine-tuning BERT/GPT-2, building NLP pipelines, training on custom datasets, and deploying to production. Directly relevant for fine-tuning on Indian languages using AI4Bharat datasets. Runs on free Colab T4.
DeepLearning.AI: Machine Learning Specialization (Free Audit)
Andrew Ng's updated 3-course ML specialisation on Coursera — free to audit. Covers supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and recommender systems with Python, scikit-learn, and TensorFlow. Still the gold standard for ML theory in India tech hiring.
Fine-Tuning Large Language Models — DeepLearning.AI (Free)
How to fine-tune LLMs on your own data using Lamini. Covers when to fine-tune vs RAG, preparing training data, and evaluation. Free, ~1.5 hours. Highly relevant for building Indian-language models or domain-specific enterprise models.
Meta PyTorch Official Tutorials (Free)
Meta's official PyTorch tutorials — the framework behind LLaMA, AI4Bharat models, and Fast.ai. From tensor basics to distributed training. Completely free, runs on free Colab. PyTorch is the most-used DL framework in Indian AI research and startups.
Building RAG Applications with LangChain + OpenAI (Free)
Retrieval Augmented Generation from scratch: embeddings, vector databases, and document Q&A. DeepLearning.AI free course. RAG is the architecture behind most Indian enterprise AI chatbots (legal, BFSI, government document Q&A).
AI4Bharat: Building Indian Language NLP Models (Open Source)
IIT Madras AI4Bharat's complete open-source toolkit for Indian language AI: IndicBERT, IndicTrans2, Dhruva ASR, and Shrutilipi TTS. Research papers, training code, and datasets all free on GitHub. The starting point for building any Indian-language AI product.
LLM Operations (LLMOps) — DeepLearning.AI (Free)
Production LLM systems: prompt versioning, evaluation pipelines, monitoring, and cost optimisation. Free, ~3 hours. Covers the full lifecycle from development to production — critical for Indian teams shipping AI products to scale.
Google Cloud: MLOps on Vertex AI (Free Qwiklabs)
Google's free hands-on MLOps labs: CI/CD pipelines for ML, model monitoring, feature stores, and A/B testing with Vertex AI. Uses free Qwiklab credits. Google Cloud's India-region data centres make this directly deployable for Indian enterprise.
OpenAI: Function Calling, Embeddings & Assistants API (Free Docs)
OpenAI's developer guide to advanced features: function calling (tool use), embeddings for semantic search, batch API, and the Assistants API for stateful agents. Free documentation with runnable Python examples. The backbone of most production AI agents in India.
Anthropic: Building Production Systems with Claude (Technical Guide)
Anthropic's advanced technical documentation: tool use, computer use, multi-agent orchestration, and Claude's constitutional AI for safe deployment. Free, no signup. Claude's 200k context window makes it ideal for long-document processing (contracts, legal filings, academic papers).
IISc / IIT: AI Research Seminars and Lecture Series (Free)
Indian Institute of Science and IITs host free public AI seminars, lecture recordings, and reading groups. IISc's CDS department and IIT Bombay's CFDVS post recordings on YouTube. Best way to access India's frontier AI research community for free.
AI4Bharat Teaching Resources
IIT Madras open-source NLP tools, datasets, and lecture materials for teaching Indian-language AI in universities.
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