MAM
India’s AI ambitions hit the high note with Microsoft scholarship surge
MUMBAI: India isn’t just coding the future, it’s rewriting it, line by line, in AI. The country has emerged as one of the top applicant nations for the 1 million dollars Microsoft AI Innovator Global Scholarships, a landmark initiative by Women in Cloud, launched alongside Opulis: Women Powering Microsoft’s Trillion-Dollar Shift.
The collector’s edition coffee table book endorsed by Microsoft and the Microsoft Alumni Network celebrates 50 women tech leaders who have helped steer the company through its transformation into the AI era. But this is more than just glossy pages and golden stories; Opulis doubles up as a career catalyst through its Book-to-Scholarship Model, where every purchase unlocks real AI learning opportunities for aspiring professionals.
Since its launch, the scholarship programme has drawn over 700 applications from 20-plus countries, including Brazil, the US, Nigeria, India, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Kenya, and Egypt. India’s strong showing underscores its growing momentum in AI skilling particularly among young professionals and women technologists eyeing the global digital workforce.
“We’re ensuring that access to AI careers and education isn’t limited to a few, it belongs to everyone, especially women ready to lead India’s digital future,” said Opulis president of women in cloud and executive producer Chaitra Vedullapalli. “Electricity unlocked the industrial revolution, and AI is unlocking quantum progress.”
Through 1,000 Opulis book pre-orders worldwide, Women in Cloud has already unlocked 100 Microsoft AI Certification Scholarships offering learners world-class credentials that can power careers worth Rs 55–60 lakh per annum. The move is projected to create over Rs 60 crore in new economic value annually, translating to about 7 million dollars in wages and an estimated 21 million dollars total economic impact.
The ultimate goal? To ignite 1,000 AI careers by 2030, powered by book sponsorships, corporate grants, and community support proof that storytelling and access can together spark large-scale economic mobility.
Marking Microsoft’s 50th anniversary, Opulis also spotlights five Indian-origin women leaders shaping the company’s AI journey: Chaitra Vedullapalli, Monika Mital Gupta, Aparana Gupta, Sharmila Rathinam, and Nitasha Chopra. Among them, Aparana Gupta, based in India, leads as Director of Engineering and Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft embodying the homegrown excellence the programme seeks to inspire.
Available in hardcover and digital editions across Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and over 4,000 global retailers, Opulis carries a unique promise: every 10 books sold funds one AI Innovator Scholarship, creating a virtuous loop of knowledge, opportunity, and empowerment.
In the end, Opulis isn’t just chronicling women who powered Microsoft’s trillion-dollar shift, it’s scripting a new chapter where Indian women and technologists worldwide can claim their seat at the AI table. And this time, they’re not just participating in the revolution, they’re training it.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
