India, Sept. 24 -- justify;">In a small room in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, 17-year-old Arjun uses AI tools on his phone to write the code for a web app that helps government-school students learn Vedic mathematics. In Churu, Rajasthan, Lakshmi Jhangir - an arts student who once thought technology was for city kids - is using her newfound fluency with AI to design a digital marketing platform for rural women entrepreneurs. And what makes these students remarkable is that neither of them owns a laptop, or has access to a computer lab. One is coding. The other is building brand and content.

AI fluency is going to become a foundational skill, helping young people write code, design, or launch a business on their own. For years, access to dig...