India, May 17 -- The Union skill development ministry (MSDE) has launched an AI chatbot on WhatsApp, in partnership with social media giant Meta and homegrown GenAI startup SarvamAI, to expand access to digital skills.

Called Skill India Assistant (SIA), the AI-powered "digital skills mentor" is available on messaging platform WhatsApp. It offers personalised assistance in English, Hindi, and Hinglish.

Developed in partnership between Meta and National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC), the project has been implemented by SarvamAI. The AI chatbot is powered by Meta's open-source large language model Llama, the ministry said in a post on X.

It offers skill guidance and access to job opportunities to the youth of the country.

"SIA i...