India’s push to become an AI-powered economy risks leaving students in smaller towns behind, not because they lack the curiosity to learn, but because they lack the infrastructure and opportunities to turn that interest into skills.
In Rajasthan’s Dholpur district, where nearly 97,000 students attend around 501 schools in the block, only about 68% of schools have internet connectivity and 53% have computers, highlighting the gap between the country’s AI ambitions and the resources available to students on the ground.
The challenge goes beyond getting students online. Access to computers, reliable power, AI labs, trained teachers, industry mentors and hands-on projects determines whether students can move from using AI tools to building with them. While local institutions are introducing AI-focused courses and entrepreneurship initiatives, the next hurdle is connecting this foundation to practical training and employment.
“The challenge now is to connect these foundations with AI labs, industry mentors, real-world projects, cloud/GPU access, internships and local employment opportunities,” Nivrutti Avhad, Additional CEO, Rajasthan Institute for Transformation and Innovation (RITI), Rajasthan government tells AIM.
Dholpur already has some building blocks in place. Engineering College Dholpur offers a B.Tech programme focused on computer science and AI, covering machine learning, data science, robotics, deep learning, natural language processing and computer vision.
Government Polytechnic College, Dholpur offers a 60-seat computer science diploma programme with practical and project-based learning. Rajasthan’s iStart programme has also established a launchpad at Government College, Dholpur, to support entrepreneurship and innovation.
However, the presence of courses and local initiatives does not necessarily translate into equal access to the tools, mentorship and career opportunities available in metropolitan technology hubs.
“The ambition should be simple: A student in Dholpur should not have to move to Jaipur or Delhi to get their first meaningful opportunity to learn, experiment and build with AI,” Avhad says.
The Problem Goes Beyond Internet Connectivity
India’s growing internet user base masks persistent inequalities in access to devices and advanced digital infrastructure. Speaking to AIM, policy analyst Vikas Lohchab cites the IAMAI–Kantar 2025 report, which says rural areas account for 57% of India’s 958 million active internet users. Yet, access to the computing resources and specialised talent required to develop AI remains concentrated in major cities.
Meanwhile, Shailendra Bhadauria, Chancellor of Pratap University in Jaipur says the divide is visible in the difference between the resources available to urban and rural students.
“While a student in a metro might have a fully equipped computer lab, a student in a rural area often has to rely entirely on a basic smartphone screen,” he tells AIM.
The distinction is significant. A smartphone may provide access to AI applications, but it is not a substitute for a computer when students need to learn programming, develop applications or work on technical projects. Unreliable internet and power supply can further limit the time students spend learning and experimenting.
Bhadauria also points to the lack of local mentors as a barrier to developing advanced skills.
“The raw capability and curiosity are definitely present in these communities, but without local mentors or experts to guide them, it is incredibly difficult for our youth to transform that basic interest into high-level technical skills,” he says.
AI Education Risks Remaining Theoretical
Even when AI is introduced into the curriculum, students need access to practical tools and teachers who can guide them through real-world applications. Bhadauria says many institutions outside major cities face budget constraints and shortages of trained faculty, leaving students to learn AI theory without sufficient hands-on experience.
“We need to pivot toward experiential learning by letting students experiment with tools, build projects, and learn where AI fails. To do this, teachers need proper training too,” he says.
He also argues that AI literacy must go beyond teaching students how to operate tools. Students need to learn to question AI-generated answers, verify information and use the technology responsibly.
“For a student, it shouldn’t feel like a futuristic gimmick. It should feel like a personal tutor that helps them understand a difficult math problem or a science concept,” Bhadauria states.
Without access to practical training, students risk learning about AI without developing the skills employers need. The disparity could widen further if quality education and industry exposure remain dependent on a student’s ability to relocate to a metropolitan centre.
The Missing Link Between Skills and Jobs
The challenge for Dholpur is to connect local education programmes with internships, employers and opportunities to build and deploy AI systems.
Bhadauria states companies and colleges need to work together to bring training and employment closer to students rather than expect them to move to established technology hubs.
“We have to stop waiting for people in smaller towns to move to the tech hubs. The training and the jobs need to go to them instead,” he says.
He calls for colleges to provide real-world projects and technology companies to offer remote internships and local partnerships. Remote work, he argues, could allow young people to access technology careers without leaving their communities.
Lohchab also highlights the importance of affordable tools and AI systems that work in Indian languages, particularly for people who may not be comfortable using English-language interfaces. Voice-based and vernacular applications could help extend AI use in areas such as farming, local governance and small businesses, provided they are accessible and relevant to local needs.
The digital divide also intersects with gender inequality. Avhad states that the Digital Samvidhan Ghar project seeks to address gaps between rural and urban communities, including unequal access to technology and digital skills.
“The whole attempt of the Digital Savidhan Ghar project has been to bridge the divide between rural India and urban India. So then comes digital divide, then gender divide and AI divide. So we are just making a humble attempt in that direction to mitigate the inequalities coming out of newer age technologies,” Avhad says.
The initiative includes training in cybersecurity and financial literacy, aimed at helping women use technology and exercise greater agency.
Can Local Initiatives Close the Gap?
Dholpur’s AI programmes offer a starting point, but the central problem remains whether students can progress from basic digital access to practical AI skills and paid opportunities. That requires more than adding AI courses to curricula. It calls for reliable connectivity, affordable computers, trained teachers, access to computing resources, industry-linked projects and routes into employment.
As Bhadauria puts it, “The training and the jobs need to go to them instead.”
Unless those pieces come together, students in Dholpur may be able to access AI tools without having the resources or support to build with them. An inclusive AI economy will be measured not by how many people can use AI, but by whether students outside major cities can develop the skills and find the opportunities to benefit from it.