STRATEGIC AI LITERACY FOR INDIA: A CASE STUDY IN TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy is now a major educational concern, especially as AI becomes more common in classrooms, workplaces, governance, and public life. Existing AI literacy models focus on AI knowledge, use, application, evaluation, creation, ethics, and societal impact. However, these models devote limited attention to the larger power structures within which AI operates. Questions of technological dependency, data control, labor displacement, platform dominance, and national preparedness remain underdeveloped in mainstream AI literacy discussions. We address this gap through a qualitative case study of Rajiv Malhotra’s public discourse on AI. We use transformative leadership theory as the main theoretical lens to examine how strategic educational leadership can expand AI literacy beyond technology and ethics. Our contention is that AI literacy in India must include strategic awareness as an aspect so that people can understand AI as a force that is reshaping knowledge, power, agency, and sovereignty.