Dell Technologies has launched uDaan, a national skills and innovation programme intended to prepare 23,000 young people in India for jobs in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and electronics manufacturing.
The initiative, announced in early September 2026, is planned across 190 institutions in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune. The network includes 100 Industrial Training Institutes and 90 higher-education institutions.
How the Dell uDaan programme is structured
uDaan is being delivered by a consortium involving the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer at IIT Delhi, Learning Links Foundation and Generation India Foundation. Each organisation has a defined role in curriculum design, training and connections to employment.
FITT-IIT Delhi is expected to develop and certify four specialised curricula. Reporting on the programme says those curricula will be reviewed with more than 40 employers so that training reflects current workplace requirements rather than remaining purely academic.
From training to employment
The programme is designed around an education-to-employment pathway. It includes technical instruction as well as apprenticeships, mentorship and job-linkage support. Employment outcomes are expected to be tracked after placement, providing a way to evaluate whether training translates into sustained work.
Dell employees are also expected to participate through mentoring. The initiative includes an entrepreneurship component supported by IIT Delhi’s innovation ecosystem, with a first-year goal of helping generate 25 deep-technology startups and 10 micro-enterprises.
Why the initiative matters
Indian employers are expanding their use of AI and cloud services while electronics manufacturing is receiving policy and private investment support. The resulting skills demand is not limited to software engineers; it extends to deployment, infrastructure, manufacturing, maintenance and business integration.
A target of 23,000 trainees is significant, but it is a programme objective rather than a completed outcome. Its impact will depend on enrolment, course completion, quality of instruction, employer participation and the number and durability of jobs secured.
What to watch next
The most useful measures will be the number of participants who complete each course, the share placed in apprenticeships or jobs, starting roles and retention after placement. Public disclosure of those outcomes would make it easier to judge effectiveness.
The launch adds a large corporate-backed programme to India’s technology-skilling landscape. Its distinctive test will be whether coordination across 190 institutions produces consistent training and measurable employment outcomes.
