Microsoft chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella, on stage at the Microsoft AI Tour in New Delhi where he announced several AI partnerships with leading customers from across sectors.
- Microsoft strikes strategic partnerships with RailTel, Apollo Hospitals, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra Group, and upGrad to help their teams and customers benefit from cloud and AI innovation
- Microsoft signs an MoU with India AI to advance AI and emerging technologies in the country, and establishesAI Centre of Excellence and AI Productivity Labs to foster inclusive growth
India – January 8, 2025 – Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella today announced cloud and AI led strategic partnerships with the Government of India and industry leaders from across key sectors of the Indian economy. This comes a day after Microsoft announced its plans to invest US $3 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure in India over the next two years, including the establishment of new data centers.
The company aims to build a thriving AI ecosystem in India by supporting the government and industry in fostering AI innovation and enhancing productivity, efficiency and accessibility.
Puneet Chandok, president, Microsoft India and South Asia, said “The world is looking to India’s leadership in AI, and our partners like RailTel, Apollo Hospitals, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra Group and upGrad, are helping the country move forward with AI. At Microsoft, we are humbled by the confidence that our customers from across sectors of the Indian economy are putting in Microsoft Copilot, our cloud and AI solutions. We are also excited to work closely with the government to extend the benefits of the India AI mission to every corner of the country and democratize access to technology and resources.”
Advancing AI in core Indian sectors
AI is increasingly becoming a key driver for business outcomes across industries. A recent IDC study, commissioned by Microsoft, showed AI usage in India jumped from 63% in 2023 to 72% in 2024. Most organizations in the country are now monetizing AI, with 79% using it for productivity and 66% for functional use cases, exceeding global averages.
To take the transformative potential of cloud and AI forward, Microsoft today announced strategic partnerships with five leading organizations across core sectors of the Indian economy. Through these partnerships, Microsoft aims to further unlock productivity and efficiency gains while delivering business impact using its cloud, Copilot and other AI solutions.
Transforming Public Sector with RailTel
Driving AI transformation in the public sector for population-scale impact, RailTel and Microsoft entered a five-year strategic partnership to advance digital, cloud, and AI transformation in the Indian railways and public sector space. Microsoft will support RailTel in establishing an AI Center of Excellence (CoE), making RailTel an AI-first organization and a leading systems integrator (SI) partner. The partnership includes an organization-wide skilling initiative to train RailTel employees in next-generation digital, cloud, and AI technologies through Microsoft’s AI National Skills Initiative and Enterprise Skilling Initiative. The two companies will co-develop AI solutions with Microsoft providing technical guidance on product roadmaps.
Transforming Healthcare with Apollo Hospitals
Leading healthcare provider Apollo Hospitals’ strategic partnership with Microsoft will span co-innovation, joint product development, go-to-market, digital transformation and research on topics such as disease progression, genomics and multi modal models to build world-class products and healthcare solutions. Microsoft will assist Apollo with their data strategy, engineering platform, and integrating AI to create new intellectual property (IP) that could be used in markets outside of India. Four healthcare copilots (for clinicians, patients, nurses, and hospital operations) have already been identified to support this engagement. The partnership is also expected to develop and implement an AI roadmap for the ‘Hospital of the Future’, focusing on expanding Apollo’s remote healthcare platform globally and co-innovating to create new health-tech solutions.
Transforming Financial Services with Bajaj Finserv
Building on their 15-year relationship, Bajaj Finance Limited (BFL), a part of Bajaj Finserv and India’s largest Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), and Microsoft have entered a strategic partnership to enhance digital transformation aimed at delivering seamless, innovative, and secure experiences for Bajaj Finance’s diverse customer base. The partnership marks a significant milestone as Bajaj Finance transforms into a FinAI company, targeting a 200-million customer franchise. Bajaj Finance aims to leverage Microsoft Azure OpenAI services to achieve transformative outcomes, including increased conversion rates, back-office productivity, and front-line performance. The company is actively implementing AI use cases across workstreams, powered by Microsoft’s advanced AI technologies, with an expected annual cost saving of INR150 crore in FY26.
Transforming Automotive, Farm, and Financial Services with AI with Mahindra
Microsoft and Mahindra Group have joined forces to transform Automotive, Farm, and Financial Services with AI. The two companies plan to develop a range of AI projects that include agentic and multimodal scenarios for the Automotive division, chatbot solutions for the Farm & Tractors division, and multilingual capabilities for the Finance division.
To accelerate this AI-driven transformation, Mahindra Group has established a dedicated ‘AI Division’. This unit will serve as an innovation hub and incubation center for AI solutions across Mahindra’s various businesses, generating intellectual property (IP) for external deployment. Microsoft will support these initiatives by providing engineering expertise, industrial AI experience, and workforce upskilling. Furthermore, Mahindra’s ‘AI Division’ plans to develop and offer specialized pre-trained models on the Azure Marketplace, extending these solutions to a broader ecosystem.
Transforming EdTech with upGrad
India’s online skilling major upGrad and Microsoft have entered in a three-year partnership to drive AI innovation and unlock the potential of AI in the skilling and higher education sectors. This collaboration will enable upGrad to certify its learners in AI training programs in association with Microsoft. Committed to equipping 1 million Indian STEM learners, including early- to mid-career professionals, with foundational and advanced AI skills by 2025, this initiative is set to be a game-changer for the country’s digital economy. Leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Azure OpenAI Service (AOAIS), upGrad will enhance teaching and learning outcomes for millions of learners across India and South Asia. GitHub Copilot also empowers upGrad’s content developers, enabling them to create more efficient and impactful learning materials, saving over 6,500 hours annually and improving code quality by 85%. Together, these features reflect a shared commitment to delivering transformative learning experiences and building India’s AI workforce.
Microsoft chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella, on stage at the Microsoft AI Tour in New Delhi. Microsoft today announced a collaboration with India AI, a division of Digital India Corporation, to collaborate on advancing AI and emerging technologies in India.
Strengthening India’s AI leadership
Microsoft has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India AI, a division of Digital India Corporation, to collaborate on advancing AI and emerging technologies in India. Together, Microsoft and India AI aim to leverage AI to drive innovation, enhance productivity, and foster inclusive growth across the country. As part of the MOU, Microsoft and India AI together will:
- Skill 500,000 individuals, including students, educators, developers, government officials, and women entrepreneurs, by 2026.
- Establish an AI Center of Excellence, ‘AI Catalysts’, to promote rural AI innovation and support 100,000 AI innovators and developers through hackathons, community-building solutions, and an AI marketplace.
- Set up ‘AI Productivity Labs’ in 20 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs)/NIELIT centers in 10 states to impart foundational courses for 20,000 educators.
The collaboration will also focus on developing AI-enabled solutions for citizen-scale domains such as healthcare, education, accessibility, and agriculture by working with startups and social enterprises, advancing foundational models with Indic language support for India’s unique requirements, providing research collaboration opportunities through Microsoft Research (MSR) India. Microsoft’s Founders Hub program to support eligible AI startups with access to technology, business resources, and mentorship.
Satya made these announcements at the AI Tour in New Delhi. To learn more about the Microsoft AI Tour in New Delhi, Satya’s visit to India and how Microsoft is empowering organizations in India with AI, click here.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Annexure with customer quotes:
Dr Anish Shah, group CEO & managing director, Mahindra Group: At Mahindra Group, we see technology as a catalyst for impactful change across industries and communities. Our partnership with Microsoft accelerates our vision to transform automotive, farming, and financial solutions through advanced AI. With our AI Division and close collaboration with Microsoft, we’re driving a new era of innovation—making our products smarter, services more intuitive, and customer experiences richer. This alliance reaffirms Mahindra’s commitment to building a sustainable, inclusive future powered by technology.
Rajeev Jain, managing director, Bajaj Finance Ltd: Bajaj Finance has always been an early adopter of technology. With the world on the threshold of an AI revolution, we are pivoting to a FinAI company by embracing AI-driven transformation. With our partnership with Microsoft, AI will integrate into our existing cloud, data, and digital infrastructure, resulting in sustained growth, lower costs, improved productivity, superior customer experience and robust controllership.
Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder & chairperson, upGrad: India is primed to be the Creator’s Economy, ready to play a part of skilled talent for the global workforce. Coupled with our demographic dividend, this now is an unparalleled opportunity realised by both corporate India and the small and medium scale sector that forms the breadth and depth of the Indian economy. AI is now clearly a modern-day workplace essential, and the partnership between Microsoft and upGrad will dwell into applications and the practical use of AI in the workplace. We are calling it the ‘U&AI’ initiative—a robust upskilling machinery to connect individuals with AI, bringing innovation and end-users together for building a more equipped, efficient, and operationally sound workforce.
Dr. Madhu Sasidhar, president and CEO, Apollo Hospitals: At Apollo Hospitals, our strategic partnership with Microsoft marks a transformative step in redefining healthcare delivery. By collaborating on co-innovation, digital transformation, and cutting-edge research in areas like disease progression, genomics, and multi-modal models, we aim to develop world-class healthcare solutions. With Microsoft’s support in data strategy, engineering, and AI integration, we are building new intellectual property that extends beyond India’s borders. This partnership will accelerate the implementation of an AI roadmap for the ‘Hospital of the Future,’ enhancing patient outcomes, empowering caregivers, and expanding Apollo’s global remote healthcare platform to set new benchmarks in health-tech innovation.
Sanjai Kumar, chairman & managing director, RailTel: Our partnership with Microsoft is a significant step towards enhancing the digital capabilities of the Indian public sector. By leveraging Microsoft’s expertise in cloud, productivity, AI, and RailTel’s resources and know-how, we aim to drive innovation and efficiency across various public sector and government entities. The AI Center of Excellence will play a pivotal role in this transformation, helping us deliver cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers.”
Abhishek Singh, CEO, India AI: “India AI Mission is being implemented by the Government of India with the objective of addressing key issues that can help India take the leadership in building applications using AI. This strategy focuses on building partnerships with Industry and Academia. Towards this, the collaboration with Microsoft aligns with the core pillars of the IndiaAI Mission, focusing on skilling, innovation, and responsible AI development. By training 500,000 individuals, fostering innovation through AI Centers of Excellence, and delivering AI-driven solutions in critical sectors, we are advancing India’s AI ecosystem. This partnership emphasizes inclusivity by empowering underserved communities, promoting ethical AI practices, and supporting startups to drive economic growth. Together, we are committed to positioning India as a global AI leader and creating a sustainable and equitable future for all.”
