India, March 9 -- Nearly 29,800 of the 2.3 lakh learners enrolled in four Artificial Intelligence (AI) courses launched in July 2025 under the government's Skilling for AI Readiness (SOAR) programme have been certified so far - about 13%, according to data shared by Union minister of state (independent charge) in ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) Jayant Chaudhary, with the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Though Chaudhary in his response to queries on SOAR by 16 MPs from different parties, did not specify the reasons behind low certification rate, the MSDE officials aware of the matter said the certification rates under SOAR are consistent with global benchmarks for free, open-access digital learning platforms like Massive Op...