The Foundation will increase investment in India by ~25% and grow its India headcount by ~10% in 2026, strengthening state- and city-level execution to accelerate job creation, while continuing all programs nationwide.
NEW DELHI: Wadhwani Foundation, a global not-for-profit focused on job creation through entrepreneurship, skilling, innovation, and government digital transformation, is entering the next phase of its growth in India by strengthening execution across 15 priority city ecosystems in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
The focus is on scaling outcomes through stronger execution, ensuring that national platforms translate into local impact. Scaling outcomes means more local jobs and more local people placed into jobs. This approach enables faster execution, clearer accountability, and closer alignment between local employers, skilling institutions, and job outcomes.
This phase builds on a solid execution base established in 2025. During the year, the Foundation invested ₹300 crore in India, supported 7,000 businesses, engaged 1.2 lakh entrepreneurship students, and made 2.5 lakh youth job-ready through employability-linked skilling. In addition to this, it also launched an AI-enabled My Career Advisor platform with the Ministry of Education, offering free, personalised career guidance to youth across 1,500+ career options.
Under innovation, the Foundation strengthened the Wadhwani Innovation Network, enabling 10 Innovation Translation Centres, including two Super Hubs at IIT Kanpur (Wadhwani AI and Intelligent Systems Hub) and IIT Bombay (Wadhwani Health and Bio Hub). Together, these hubs support 50+ translation centres across the innovation ecosystem. Overall, 100 research projects were advanced toward product and startup pathways.
AI projects were delivered for six central ministries; ASHA (Anna Sahayata Holistic AI Solution) was launched to enable feedback from Public Distribution System (PDS) beneficiaries; and 30+ AI solutions were deployed across healthcare, agriculture, and education.
Building on this momentum, the Foundation will increase India investment by ~25% in 2026 and grow its India team by ~10%, expanding state- and city-level execution teams and deepening partnerships with governments, institutions, employers, and local ecosystems. Operating through a dual model for maximum impact, the Foundation’s national platforms will continue to provide scale and consistency, while state and city teams will drive delivery, coordination, and accountability on the ground. This includes limited role realignments to support state-level execution. All programs continue to be offered at zero cost to partners and beneficiaries.
Dr. Ajay Kela, CEO & 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.”
With a sharp focus on moving closer to local ecosystems where impact is created and sustained, the Wadhwani Foundation continues its commitment to all programs across entrepreneurship, skilling, SMB growth, innovation, and government digital transformation.