Union Minister for Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, has announced the establishment of three AI Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in New Delhi to focus on key sectors--Healthcare, Agriculture, and Sustainable cities. The CoEs are led by top institutions in partnership with industry stakeholders and startups. The total amount required for setting up the CoEs is Rs 990 crore.
The initiative will be implemented over five years, from FY 2023-24 to FY 2027-28, with the aim of strengthening India's global position in AI-driven research and innovation.
AIIMS and IIT Delhi will head the healthcare CoE, while IIT Ropar will lead in agriculture and IIT Kanpur will drive the sustainable cities initiative.
The three AI CoEs will work to realise the vision of 'Viksit Bharat'. They will conduct interdisciplinary research, develop cutting-edge applications, and create scalable solutions in these sectors. This initiative aims to galvanise an effective AI ecosystem and nurture high-quality human resources in these critical fields.
An industry-heavy apex committee has been constituted, co-chaired by Dr Sridhar Vembu, to oversee the initiative's implementation.
Meanwhile, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan expressed hope that the three AI-CoEs would emerge as global centres of public good. He noted that these CoEs will give a major boost to the country's start-up ecosystem, helping create a new generation of job and wealth creators and establishing new paradigms of global public good.
(With inputs from ANI)