New Delhi, January 28, 2026: Wadhwani Foundation has announced the next phase of its India strategy, focusing on deeper state- and city-level execution to accelerate job creation and placements. The Foundation aims to create 2.5 million jobs and enable 6 million placements by 2030 by strengthening delivery across 15 priority city ecosystems in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
The shift reflects a sharper focus on translating national-scale platforms into measurable local outcomes. By strengthening execution closer to employers, skilling institutions, and local governments, the Foundation aims to improve accountability, coordination, and alignment between skilling and employment outcomes.
The strategy builds on progress made in 2025, when the Foundation invested ₹300 crore in India, supported over 7,000 businesses, engaged 1.2 lakh entrepreneurship students, and made 2.5 lakh youth job-ready through employability-linked skilling programmes. During the year, it also launched the AI-enabled My Career Advisor platform in partnership with the Ministry of Education, offering free, personalised career guidance across more than 1,500 career pathways.
In the innovation domain, the Foundation strengthened the Wadhwani Innovation Network, supporting 10 Innovation Translation Centres, including Super Hubs at IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay. These hubs collectively support over 50 translation centres each, advancing around 100 research projects toward product development and startup pathways. In parallel, AI-led projects were delivered for six central ministries, with more than 30 AI solutions deployed across healthcare, agriculture, and education.
Building on this momentum, the Foundation will increase its India investment by approximately 25% in 2026 and expand its India workforce by around 10%. This expansion will support stronger state- and city-level teams, deeper partnerships with governments and employers, and improved on-ground coordination. The Foundation will continue to operate through a dual model, with national platforms providing scale and consistency, while local teams drive execution and outcomes. All programmes will continue to be offered at no cost to partners and beneficiaries.
Ajay Kela, CEO and Board Member, Wadhwani Foundation, said, “Our mission is to create jobs and improve livelihoods at scale. Building on strong momentum in 2025, we are increasing investment and expanding our India team in 2026 to strengthen execution across states and cities. This will accelerate outcomes, creating more jobs locally and placing more job-ready people into them, as we progress toward our 2030 goals.”
Through this approach, the Wadhwani Foundation reiterated its commitment to entrepreneurship, skilling, innovation, small business growth, and government digital transformation, with an emphasis on sustained local impact.
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