India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat by 2047 rests on whether the productivity gains unlocked by artificial intelligence (AI) are broadly shared or concentrated among those already well-served. AI is reshaping value chains across agriculture, logistics, health care and financial services. The design choices in these systems, who they are built for, whose data they train on, and whose languages they speak, will determine whether this transformation amplifies India’s inclusive growth story or adds a dimension to structural inequalities.

About 82% of working women in India are in informal employment according to a 2018 ILO report, spanning agriculture, home-based production, domestic services and micro-enterprises. The gender implications of AI adoption are, above all, a question of economic inclusion. India’s AI Governance Guidelines, released in November 2025, set out seven guiding principles, including fairness and equity; translating these into gender-responsive outcomes is both a governance priority and a development opportunity. As UN Women has warned, AI is already reimagining reality for billions, but it is still getting women wrong; without gender-responsive design, testing and oversight, it risks amplifying stereotypes, discrimination and digital violence instead of expanding opportunity.

In agriculture and informal work

AI holds considerable promise for Indian farmers through precision agriculture applications, real-time advisory on crop health, input optimisation and market access. With 76.9% of rural women engaged in agriculture as in Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023-24 reporting, women are a primary constituency. Early evidence is telling: a 2024 study of Farmer.Chat, deployed across 12 States, found that 61% of women users reported improved quality of life within 45 days, with engagement levels two to three times those of male users. While the specific design features driving this outcome require further documentation, the results suggest that when AI agricultural tools reach women, keeping in mind language, land access patterns, mobility constraints, and relevance, meaningful engagement follows. Building on this foundation, three areas merit focused attention as India scales its AI deployment.

Governance priorities

First, gender impact assessments. The India AI Governance Guidelines’ principles of fairness and equity require operationalisation through proportionate gender impact assessments for AI systems affecting economic opportunity, welfare access or safety for women and girls. These should examine whether outcomes vary by sex, location, caste, disability and work status, and whether redressal mechanisms are accessible in regional languages. Where AI decisions on credit, employment or welfare cannot be explained, trust suffers disproportionately among marginalised groups. Similarly, Gender Responsive Budgeting offers a practical test for decisions on AI spend. For any significant AI investment, four questions can be applied: which women will benefit; which specific barrier (access, language, safety or capability) is being addressed; how outcomes will be measured; and which budget line will finance corrective action if results fall short.

Second, AI literacy as public infrastructure. Access to tools is a necessary but not sufficient condition for inclusion. Training programmes for women in informal work must be designed around their time constraints, literacy levels and livelihood contexts. Embedding AI literacy within Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) and Skill India, with linkages to Mission Shakti’s Sakhi network, would allow trusted community infrastructure to carry new digital capability. The measure of success should be outcome-based: did this help a woman access an entitlement, navigate a platform, or move to better-paid work? Third, digital safety as a condition for economic participation. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including deepfakes, online harassment and non-consensual imagery, creates a measurable “chilling effect”, discouraging women from participating fully in digital economic spaces. The IT (Amendment) Rules, 2021 require grievance mechanisms for harmful content; the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)’s proposed mandatory labelling of AI-generated synthetic content adds further protection. Effective implementation, with accessible survivor-facing remedies in regional languages, is a prerequisite for women’s sustained digital participation.

The National Commission for Women’s review of cyber laws provides evidence-based recommendations warranting timely inter-ministerial action.

AI prosperity for all

India has built substantial AI infrastructure in a short period: the IndiaAI Mission, the BHASHa Interface for India (BHASHINI) multilingual platform, the AI Governance Guidelines and targeted cross-sector partnerships. The India AI Impact Summit 2026 showed that these ambitions are matched by a growing ecosystem of practitioners, innovators and civil society.

The opportunity is to ensure that the productivity gains from this infrastructure reach those at the base of the economic pyramid, viz., women farmers, home-based workers, self-help group members, platform participants. This requires deliberate design: in procurement standards, training programmes, safety frameworks and the measurement of success.

By 2047, the measure of India’s AI success should not be aggregate indicators alone, but whether women in informal work have gained meaningful, productive access to the tools and opportunities that AI enables. That is the standard consistent with Viksit Bharat, and it is within India’s reach.

S. Krishnan, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India; Shoko Ishikawa, Country Representative, UN Women India and part of Team UN in India

Published - July 28, 2026 12:08 am IST