National WICxSaksham Program Kicks Off To Build Cyber Resilience

In a bid to create a Cyber Resilient Viskit Bharat, Women In Cloud, a global economic development organization unlocking $1B in access for women by 2030, announced the launch of WICxSaksham initiative, a three-year public-private national programme, that is aimed at creating an ecosystem for a $7 trillion Viksit Bharat. With an aggressive target to shape India’s digital destiny, Women In Cloud has collaborated with Veeam® Software, the #1 global leader by market share in data resilience, and Grace Hopper Celebration India (GHCI). The partnership will empower women as next-generation leaders in AI, Cloud, and Cybersecurity, accelerating India’s journey toward a Viksit Bharat by 2030.

#WICxSaksham2025 is part of the Bharat Cyber Suraksha Mission, that aims to certify 1 million professionals, activate 100 universities, and inspire 100 million Indian citizens toward digital readiness and inclusion, to make India a cyber-secure, AI-skilled, and innovation-ready nation. The initiative was announced at a press conference in the presence of Chaitra Vedullapalli, Co-Founder & President, Women in Cloud; Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President and Managing Director, India & SAARC, Veeam; Dr. K.N. Subramanya, Principal, RV College of Engineering; Michelle Pruitt, Former Microsoft Executive & OPULIS Honoree and Karen Cone, Women In Cloud Board Director & OPULIS Honoree.

WICxSaksham is a call to action under Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Viksit Bharat Mission. This will see India becoming a developed, self-reliant digital powerhouse by 2047. Achieving this vision demands an AI-ready, cyber-resilient workforce and strong collaboration across policy, industry, and academia. WICxSaksham2025 directly advances this national priority by equipping India’s youth, professionals, and institutions with the skills, innovation capacity, and leadership readiness required to secure India’s digital future. WICxSaksham will bring together policy, industry, and academia to co-create a blueprint for India’s cyber-resilient and a digitally sovereign future. As the technology backbone of this initiative, Veeam will support the cyber resilience, data protection, and recovery readiness components that prepare learners and institutions for real-world threats.

Commenting on the initiative, Chaitra Vedullapalli, Co-Founder, Women in Cloud, said, “We are aiming for a $7 trillion Viksit Bharat vision by 2030. However, to achieve this we need to ensure a secure, skilled, and innovation-ready workforce. Even as we see India’s digital economy growing at a phenomenal pace there is a huge gap in talent readiness. This requires talent readiness and WICxSaksham will bridge this talent gap through partnerships across industry, academia, and policy. Becoming a Cyber Resilient Viskhit Bharat is the need of the hour and WICxSaksham is our endeavor towards achieving it.”

“We’re not waiting for the future, we’re building it. WICxSaksham is a movement to turn India’s digital potential into global leadership, by skilling, certifying, and celebrating the next million innovators,” Chaitra added.

Veeam’s leadership in cyber resilience and data protection plays a critical role in shaping the skilling and capacity-building components of WICxSaksham.

Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President and Managing Director, India and SAARC, at Veeam said, “India is accelerating toward its most digitally intensive decade, but rising ransomware threats and a widening cyber skill gap pose a real risk to national growth. As the global leader trusted by over 550,000 organizations for data resilience and ransomware recovery, Veeam believes cyber resilience must become a national capability. Through WICxSaksham, we are committing to build this capability at scale, by enabling 25,000 job pathways, establishing 100 Cyber Resilience Centers of Excellence, and delivering 100,000 certifications in data protection, cloud backup, DevSecOps, and AI-enabled cyber resilience. Our goal is to equip every student, professional, and institution with world-class skills and real-world recovery expertise. Together with Women in Cloud, we aim to strengthen India’s digital backbone and power a truly Cyber-Surakshit and Cyber-Saksham Bharat.”

The national activation of WICxSaksham started today in Bangalore will go on till December 6, 2025. Veeam will support the campaign’s cyber awareness narrative with insights and best practices drawn from its global leadership in data resilience. The activation will include a series of events - WICxSaksham Executive Leadership Roundtable, WIC and Microsoft Endorsed Coffee Table Book Launch, OPULIS, activations at GHCI India, Main Hoon Saksham Campaign Launch, DevSecOps Launch and AI Innovator Certification Program, student-level activations at RV College of Engineering, Bangalore and empowHERaccess Awards.

The Innovation Dividend: Turning Certifications into Real-World Impact in the AI Economy - A four-tier partnership model where organizations can co-create India’s digital future by contributing ₹1L to ₹1Cr. Partners gain national visibility, advisory access, and real-time impact dashboards while helping skill thousands of citizens.

Executive Roundtable - A closed-door dialogue between policy makers, industry leaders, and academia to co-create the roadmap for India’s cyber-resilient, digitally sovereign future discussing certifications, the “Main Hoon Saksham” campaign, and university activation models.

Main Hoon Saksham - 100M Impressions Campaign - This campaign that will mark the beginning of nationwide storytelling movement spotlighting India’s digital champions — women, students, and innovators — who are transforming their communities through AI and cyber skills. This campaign will drive 100 million+ citizen impressions, fueling pride and participation in India’s innovation story.

University Activation: Building DevSecOps & AISecOps Ready Talent for India and the World - The University Activation Program will see WiC and Veeam Software coming together to establish AI + Cybersecurity Centers of Excellence (COEs) - powered by Veeam’s industry-leading data resilience platforms - across 100 leading institutions in India. These COEs will integrate DevSecOps and AISecOps programming that will help students gain experience in secure software development, automation, and AI-driven security operations. These centres will connect academia with industry through certification pathways, mentorship programs, innovation labs, and workforce readiness. All these initiatives will lead to preparing graduates to thrive in a cyber-resilient and AI-powered economy.

empowHERaccess Global Prestige Awards: This year, it’s the third year in India and fifth globally. These awards will celebrate trailblazers, technologists, mentors, entrepreneurs, and allies driving access, innovation, and leadership in the AI-powered economy.