New centres of excellence aim to position India as AI leader

INDIA

Aiming to establish the country as a leader in artificial intelligence, the government of India this week unveiled plans to set up three AI Centres of Excellence at higher education institutions focused on the areas of healthcare, agriculture and sustainable urban development.

The centres will conduct interdisciplinary research, develop innovative applications and create scalable solutions within a robust AI ecosystem, according to the government.

They will constitute a “significant step in enhancing India’s standing in the global AI landscape”, Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan said during an event in New Delhi on 15 October.

The centres of excellence (CoE) plan will be implemented in collaboration with top institutions such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, IIT Kanpur, and IIT Ropar by 2028.

Pradhan said the AI centres would provide solutions to global challenges for public benefit, while fostering “a new generation of job creators and wealth generators”, adding: “With the talent and zeal that India possesses, these centres of excellence will play a pivotal role in global public policy.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), described the initiative as a major milestone in India’s technological journey and a “very important stride in India’s effort to become a leader in tech, innovation and AI. I am confident these COEs will benefit our Yuva Shakti (youth power) and contribute towards making India a hub for futuristic growth”.

The government has allocated Rs9.9 billion (US$117 million) for the initiative over the next five years, spanning the 2023-24 fiscal year to FY 2027-28.

AI in health

AIIMS, the country’s top medical institution, will co-lead the healthcare CoE which will be a consortium of 20 to 30 organisations, including several of India’s IITs. IIT Delhi will also co-lead the project.

The Education Ministry said in a statement the healthcare AI-CoE will concentrate on early disease prediction, diagnostics, and pandemic tracking, while tackling issues related to affordability, quality, and access to medicines through trials and data collection, including medicines derived from India’s traditional healing systems which include Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH).

Dr Krithika Rangarajan, an assistant professor at AIIMS, told University World News: “It’s important [for the centres] to integrate with the existing national health infrastructure. Currently, there is a fragmented approach to healthcare, with numerous startups developing their own solutions for various issues.

“So, these are not very compliant with the public health system at the moment and often overlook key public health issues. We need to transform the healthcare system by examining (the healthcare system) as a whole.”

She added: “We need to assess current public healthcare infrastructure and identify areas of inefficiency within it. By specifically targeting these areas, we can make a concerted effort to transform the healthcare ecosystem of the country.”

Unique collaboration

She said the CoE initiative will be a unique collaboration between industry, academia, and large public hospitals, noting a significant achievement will be the ability to unite all stakeholders effectively.

“It has the potential to develop products that can be both marketed and integrated into digital public infrastructure from the outset. This concerted effort is essential, as AI is an inherently interdisciplinary field.

“Hospitals contribute one aspect of the puzzle, while technology and universities provide another, along with startups and industries holding yet another piece. For meaningful change to occur, all these components must come together,” she said.

IIT Ropar will lead the centre for agriculture which aims to revolutionise farming practices by utilising data on crop yields and weather to provide AI-driven guidance.

IIT Kanpur will lead the sustainable urban development CoE focused on the use of AI for smart city planning, traffic management, and resource distribution. It will leverage data from sensors and satellite feeds to improve the design of public spaces.

Revenue generation

Sachchida Nand Tripathi, professor of civil engineering and sustainable energy engineering at IIT-Kanpur, told University World News: “This is a very novel concept. This is different from having a project where one or more institutes work together and pursue a research project. Here we are creating a CoE which will act as a hub and will be implemented in the form of a company.

“Here we are working with academic partners and startups, and we will be getting real world cases to solve. The main thing is … we will develop products, applications, programmes and tools which are deployable and which are scalable in nature. And this is only possible when we work together with industries and startups.”

Tripathi said the tools that they develop would be taken from the CoE to “hundreds and thousands of cities and towns” across the country. “We want to generate revenue through this so that the centre could also become sustainable,” he added.

Sanjay Murthy, secretary of the Department of Higher Education, emphasised that the CoEs are designed to benefit the entire nation rather than being limited to specific institutions and underscored the significance of interdisciplinary research. “Effective collaboration among like-minded resources can lead to optimal outcomes,” he said.

An apex committee has been constituted to oversee implementation of the initiative led by Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation, an Indian multinational technology and software company. In April, Vembu was appointed a member of higher education regulatory body the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Vembu said the CoEs will provide comprehensive benefits for villages, cities, and the populace.

He pointed to the need to cultivate the country’s talent pool to ensure “individuals thrive and contribute to the nation over the next 10 to 20 years”.

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