India must look beyond legacy educational institutions to establish AI Centres of Excellence

Suitably leveraged, artificial intelligence technologies can contribute greatly to India being able to achieve its objectives.

As India steps up the pace of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption to improve the quality of life of its 1.4 billion citizens, it is imperative that the country looks beyond legacy educational institutions to establish AI Centres of Excellence (CoE) such that the artificial intelligence research and innovation ecosystem could take deeper roots here.

In its Discussion Paper on the “National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence” published in 2018, the Niti Aayog had the following to say on AI-related research in the country: “… anecdotal evidence based on discussions with top researchers reveals that serious research work in India is limited to less than 50 researchers, concentrated mostly at institutes like IITs, IIITs and IISc”. As measured by the H-Index, India’s impact on AI research, till now, has not been at the same level as that of the US, UK, China, etcetera.

Broaden The Reach

Broadening the locational reach of AI CoEs could yield multiple benefits. It could increase the pool of quality AI-related researchers in the country which, in turn, could contribute to the development of fresh ideas and approaches for speeding up the process of being able to come up with locally developed AI products and solutions that are tailored to the Indian context and lessen dependence on the need for tweaking AI products built elsewhere to suit local requirements.

Doing so could also promote greater entrepreneurial activity and job creation, including in the smaller towns and cities. And thereby aid the process of making artificial intelligence emerge as a visible force for good for everyone in India, irrespective of their social and economic standing and place of stay, in keeping with the Sabka Vikas (development for all) mantra.

Supporting the establishment of AI CoEs at newly established educational and research institutions, including those established by the private sector, through grants and/or soft loans could have other positive ramifications in terms of making India a bigger force to reckon with globally in the AI domain, and in bolstering the country’s position in the Global Innovation Index (GII). Besides, it will provide a fillip to signature national missions like Digital India, Make in India, and Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Moving Up The Innovation Index

A technology-driven system has been identified as one of the pillars (the others being vibrant demography, demand, infrastructure and economy) on which rests the aspiration of building a self-reliant India. Although India has significantly improved its GII ranking over the years (it was ranked 40th out of the 132 economies featured in the GII 2022), the country still comes below many prominent Asian peers like the Republic of Korea (6), Singapore (7), China (11) and Japan (13) on the Global Innovation Index. India’s GII ranking in 2022 was pulled down to a large extent by its unsatisfactory show in the “Researchers, FTE/mn pop” category, where ‘FTE’ stands for full-time equivalent and ‘mn pop’ represents million population.

Authorities could consider the Ministry of Education’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) for selecting the institution/s (besides the IITs, IISc etc.) that they would like to support in establishing a CoE for artificial intelligence. Institutions that have not participated in the NIRF ranking exercise could also be looked at for the same purpose if they are found to possess the expertise to conduct quality AI-related research.

India has already expressed its willingness to do everything it can to emerge as a developed nation by 2047, and, also, ensure that growth and development get mirrored in the form of improvement in the living standards of its citizens. Suitably leveraged, artificial intelligence technologies can contribute greatly to India being able to achieve its objectives and it is hoped that the country would do whatever it takes to emerge best placed to ride the AI wave.

Sumali Moitra is a current affairs commentator. Twitter: @sumalimoitra. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.