NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan will launch three Artificial Intelligence (AI) Centres of Excellence (CoE) focused on healthcare, agriculture, and sustainable cities in New Delhi on October 15, 2024.
To realise the vision of the Viksit Bharat, these three Centres of Excellence for AI will be led by top educational institutions, in consortium with industry partners and startups. They will conduct interdisciplinary research, develop cutting-edge applications, and create scalable solutions in these three areas, reports said.
This initiative aims to galvanise an effective AI ecosystem and nurture quality human resources in these critical fields.
“These CoEs in AI will bring together the best of industry and academia to democratise the use of AI for cutting-edge solutions in the areas of agriculture, health and sustainable cities and progress and well-being of all. It will also strengthen Bharat’s credentials as a front runner for human-centric AI development,” posted Dharmendra Pradhan on social media platform X.
As part of the vision to “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India”, the establishment of these centres was announced under Para 60 of the Budget Announcement for 2023-24.
In alignment with this, the Central government has approved the creation of the three AI Centres of Excellence, with a financial outlay of Rs.990.00 crore over the period of FY 2023-24 to FY 2027-28.
To oversee the implementation of this initiative, an industry heavy Apex Committee has been constituted, co-chaired by Dr. Sridhar Vembu, Founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation.
K.Sanjay Murthy, Secretary (HE) will grace the occasion, along with Directors of IITs, Heads of higher educational institutions (HEIs), industry leaders, start-up founders and senior officials from various Ministries.