Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the exceptional talent of Indian youth, remarking, “When it comes to innovation and technology, Indian youth are among the best!” His comments came after GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke highlighted India’s rapid ascent in the global tech arena in a social media post.
Dohmke commended India as the fastest-growing developer population in the world, emphasizing the country’s pivotal role in artificial intelligence (AI) development. In his post on X, previously known as Twitter, Dohmke acknowledged how Indian developers are embracing AI as a foundational tool, creating new AI systems through innovative techniques.
“I have to show some love to India. Now the fastest-growing developer population on the planet, India’s rise as a global tech titan is inexorable,” Dohmke said, underscoring the momentum of Indian developers in contributing to GitHub’s ecosystem.
“India’s developers have gone a leap further: they’re increasingly using AI to build AI. India has the second-highest number of contributors to public generative AI projects. This makes it evermore likely the next great AI multinational is borne on the continent,” GitHub CEO wrote on social media.
According to the details he shared on social media from GitHub’s latest ‘Octoverse’ report, India made 5.2 billion contributions in 2024 alone, establishing over 108 million new repositories.
“A rapidly growing number of developers worldwide—especially in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Notable growth is occurring in India, which is expected to have the world’s largest developer population on GitHub by 2028, as well as across Africa and Latin America,” the report further noted adding that “to identify the developer communities with the highest growth potential over the next five years, we created projections based on current trends. And our prediction from last year changed: India is now on track to surpass the United States in number of developers on GitHub by 2028 (previously, we had predicted it would overtake the United States by 2027 based on linear population growth).”
India’s developer community is expanding rapidly and is projected to become the world’s largest by 2028. The country emphasizes open-source software and, through its National Education Policy of 2020, has made coding and AI essential parts of the school curriculum. Notably, a recent study by the learning platform Udemy identified GitHub as one of India’s most sought-after skills, ranking it on par with English grammar.
“As part of the United Nations-backed Digital Public Goods Alliance, India also builds its digital public infrastructure with digital public goods (DPGs)—ranging from software code to AI models. Its Open Healthcare Network platform, for instance, is a community-driven project fueled by a small but dedicated team of open-source developers who use GitHub Copilot,” it added.
The report also stated that developers from the United States, Hong Kong SAR, India, Germany, and France are leading the way in contributions to generative AI projects. India, for example, recorded a 95% increase in contributions to generative AI projects on GitHub year-over-year, while France saw a 70% rise. These developer communities also experienced some of the highest year-over-year growth in contributor numbers.
Overall, according to the GitHub report, India has the second-largest developer population on GitHub, ranks second in GitHub Education users, and is a major contributor to public generative AI and open-source projects. The report further noted that with the country’s rapidly expanding developer community skilled in AI tools, India is positioned to drive digital transformation across the region and emerge as a global tech leader.
According to Ajay Goyal, Co-Founder and CEO of Erekrut, India’s academic landscape has been a catalyst in driving the nation’s tech growth, with over 500+ universities now offering specialized courses in AI, data science, and software engineering. “A recent report highlights that nearly 1 million students graduate annually in IT-related fields, many contributing to the 5.2 billion GitHub submissions and the 108 million new repositories created in 2024 alone. Collaborative projects between academia and tech industries, such as internships and apprenticeship programs, are aligning educational outcomes with industry demands, ensuring that Indian graduates are well-prepared to lead in global technology innovation,” he noted.
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Bhaswati Guha Majumder, APAC News Network
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