Former Meta India head Kirthiga Reddy announces AI Kiran to empower Indian women in AI

"With India set to become a world AI powerhouse, empowering its women in this area isn't local impact it's global transformation". Kirthiga Reddy, formerly the first employee and Managing Director of Facebook India (now Meta) and subsequently the first female investing partner at the AI-centric over $130B SoftBank's Vision Fund, is more than certain about what she wants to accomplish with her new platform AI Kiran.

Reddy, CEO & co-founder now, Verix, a trust-tech platform across the globe, is the mind behind AI Kiran which looks to place Indian women in AI on a world platform, provide connectivity, funding and mentorship. AI Kiran is debuting on April 21 as part of UN creativity and innovation day. The timing is critical, because even though women dominate men in STEM courses in India, it is estimated that only 33 per cent of junior-level GenAI positions are occupied by women in India and this falls to 19 per cent at the senior level.

"It is towards building a cross-functional AI community.". The program is being hosted on the Manthan Platform, making access possible for a large and varied audience of professionals, students, and researchers in India," Reddy described. She indicated all awards under AI Kiran are digitally validated by blockchain-powered credentialing, verifying authenticity, transparency, and worldwide shareability. This program blends an energetic membership network with mentorship access, carefully selected learning programs, branding assistance, and high-profile events – fostering useful opportunities for development, visibility, and leadership. It is also about bridging women geographically.

India's AI market is expected to grow to $17 billion by 2027, Reddy stated, and to make sure that women are a driving force in shaping and running transformative technologies, "a collaborative approach is needed between the government, private sector and civil society organisations". That is why AI Kiran is being launched in partnership with the office of the principal scientific adviser to the government of India and INK Women, she explained.

Within the initial announcement, the campaign targets 250 prominent women in AI across major fields such as education, healthcare, sustainability, and enterprise technology, with interdisciplinary views which are essential to effective and responsible AI. "This launch will set the stage for a multi-year process of recognising, growing and nurturing women leaders in AI", she said. Next year, together with our partners, we plan to reach a million women in AI across our programs.

Apart from government assistance, AI Kiran has also established strong collaborations with Nasscom, 100 GIGA, AspireForHer, Udaiti Foundation, Youth Ki Awaaz and Karya. "We are also built for global connectivity from the beginning in collaboration with organizations such as AnitaB.org, SheTO and Neythri. With these collaborators, we are developing channels for continuous learning and collaboration, mentorship initiatives, funding streams, and establishing a global network of women leaders".

The launch also launches a fundraising campaign with through the INK Women Foundation not-for-profit. "Our first goal of $3M funds the ambitious AI Kiran effort with funds for large-scale summits, academic and industry collaborations, scholarships, and disseminating women in AI stories in India on the global platform".