CodeYogi Foundation expands mobile-based AI learning across government schools

CodeYogi is enabling students to learn and build with technology through smartphones.

In a small room in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, 17-year-old Arjun uses AI tools on his phone to write the code for a web app that helps government-school students learn Vedic mathematics. In Churu, Rajasthan, Lakshmi Jhangir — an arts student who once thought technology was for city kids — is using her newfound fluency with AI to design a digital marketing platform for rural women entrepreneurs. And what makes these students remarkable is that neither of them owns a laptop, or has access to a computer lab. One is coding. The other is building brand and content.

CodeYogi Foundation empowers learners through an AI fluency program accessible via phones, challenging traditional views on digital education and bridging the technology gap. (CodeYogi Foundation)

AI fluency is going to become a foundational skill, helping young people write code, design, or launch a business on their own. For years, access to digital learning has been tied to physical infrastructure. A computer lab, a desktop, internet and familiarity with English could determine who got to learn and who did not. The gap shows up clearly in government reports; UDISE 2024–25 figures put computer availability at 64.7% of schools nationally, but only 58% of those computers are actually functional for teaching; the rest sit locked away or broken. Internet access lags further behind, at 63.5%, with rural and government schools trailing private ones by a margin.

CodeYogi Foundation is looking to change that by enabling students to learn and build with technology on the devices they already have.

The programme is built for the conditions its students actually learn in: a browser-based code editor runs directly on a phone with no heavy downloads, and lessons are available in local languages. It wasn't always this way, CodeYogi began as a coding-first programme delivered through Telegram, before shifting to AI fluency and WhatsApp as generative AI became more capable.

Where it began

The idea for the CodeYogi nonprofit took shape in an unlikely place: at a college in the hills of Uttarakhand, where an IIT-Delhi Alumnus, Prashant Chaudhary, was overseeing the rollout of a six-month-long coding program through a government partnership, when construction shut the college's computer lab midway through the course. There was no immediate alternative, and in an intensive programme, losing a week could mean falling behind. That’s when Prashant suggested that his students learn to code on their phones. By the following Monday, the students had taught themselves to code on their phones. And by the time the course ended their results were on par with students who never lost access to the lab.

For Prashant, who had spent years teaching students from underserved backgrounds before founding CodeYogi, this experience was an eye-opening one, which inspired him to set up CodeYogi in 2020.

“What stayed with us wasn't that the students learned on their phones. It was that, when something stood between them and what they wanted to become, they found a way around it. Sometimes opportunity doesn't create ambition; it simply reveals what was already there.”

Having spent more than 15 years building technology products for global clients and training over 5,000 students in software and technology, Prashant Chaudhry joined forces with another IIT Delhi alumnus, Rakesh Sehgal who brings 15 years across government consulting, programme design and startup expertise and Priyanka Sethi a Computer Science engineer who spent 12 years teaching before helping run a technology services company in 2024.They run CodeYogi as a co-founding trio, with Rakesh taking care of programme design, government partnerships and fundraising, while Priyanka heads operations, people and compliance.

The cost of AI-enhanced learning

For Rakesh, economics is core to the design of the problem and crucial to its solution.

“We've always believed that a student's ability to learn shouldn't depend on their ability to pay. Students and schools use the programme for free, while philanthropic funding allows us to build and deliver it at scale.”

Government partnerships have allowed CodeYogi to take the programme into public schools without charging students or schools. The organisation says the programme costs roughly ₹90 to ₹180 per student a year to deliver, with the cost supported through philanthropic funding.

Priyanka sees accessibility as a broader product question than simply putting lessons onto a phone.

“We don't want students to spend their energy figuring out the system before they can learn from it. Our job is to make the system disappear as much as possible, so they can focus on thinking, experimenting and building.”

The scale so far

As of August 2026, CodeYogi's AI-fluency programme reaches more than 4,00,000 students across 4,200 government schools, 102 districts and 9 states. That is separate from its earlier coding programme, which ran from 2023 to early 2026 and reached 2,95,000 students on its own before the shift to AI fluency.

More than 95% of learners use smartphones as their primary learning device, and nearly half are girls. Among the students who progressed furthest in that earlier coding programme, 59% came from non-STEM backgrounds, which is encouraging because it challenges a long-held assumption that students need a conventional science or engineering background to become comfortable with technology.

And the current programme is designed to stress test that proposition at a much larger scale and much earlier in students' education.

Backing the bet

CodeYogi was selected as part of The/Nudge's incubator program and joined the^delta's first accelerator cohort in July 2026.

The incubator was about proving that the model could work. The accelerator focuses on what it will take to scale these solutions, supported by government partnerships, better financial systems and readiness for future capital.

Over a 12-month engagement, the CodeYogi team is working closely with the^delta's mentors, ecosystem partners and bespoke portfolio support to sharpen their strategy and model, and prepare for scale.

the^delta supports early-stage, impact-focused organisations through mentorship and ecosystem support, helping them build models that can create social impact at scale.

What's at stake

The stakes are getting larger as AI becomes part of how people learn and work. Students who learn to use these tools early may have an advantage that compounds over time. Students who do not get that opportunity risk falling further behind.

CodeYogi bets that the starting point for that education does not have to be a computer lab.It can be a phone.

The organisation is trying to give underserved students enough exposure, practice and support to become genuinely fluent with AI. Before the AI gap becomes a wider skills and opportunity gap.

And perhaps that is what the students who were locked out of the computer lab in Uttarakhand revealed in the first place. The ambition was already there. What was missing was a way in.

Learn more at [www.thedelta.org.in]Note to the Reader: This article is part of Hindustan Times' promotional consumer connect initiative and is independently created by the brand. Hindustan Times assumes no editorial responsibility for the content.