Government's 3 AI Centers of Excellence gains steam

In 2023, Finance Minister while unveiling the budget for the year, had announced that the government will establish 3 centers of excellence in AI

In the 2023 budget Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that the government will be setting up 3 AI Centers of Excellence. A year later, it seems the proposal has finally gathered some steam.

Ministry of Education has established a central project management unit (CPMU) at the Indian Institute of Technology Jammu in October, 2023 for establishing these three centers of excellence, as part of the government's Make AI in India and Make AI Work for India initiatives, an advertisement by IIT Jammu floated on on January 1 said.

The CPMU has been tasked with hiring a team that can manage the AI CoE project from 2023-2028. The centers of excellence will concentrate on targeting agriculture, health and sustainable cities domains.

As of now, the education ministry has floated advertisements for hiring a chief project coordinator, sectoral experts in AI, health and sustainable cities, project managers and so on.

"We are looking for highly motivated individuals who want to transform the areas of Agriculture, Health and Sustainable Cities through the use of Artificial Intelligence. They will coordinate and advise top notch institutes/consortia that will setup these Centers of Excellence in the above 3 areas," said Srikanth Nandhamuni, member of the apex committee for setting up the CoEs.

While the chief project coordinator will be expected to ensure that the key AI projects taken up in these CoEs, deliver tangible values for societal good; sectoral experts will be responsible for ensuring integration of AI in their respective domains.

On February 1, 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will be setting up three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) to research and develop cutting-edge applications in India.

“Three centres of excellence for AI will be set up to realise the vision of ‘make AI in India and make AI work for India'. This will be set up in top leading educational institutions. Leading industry players will partner in conducting inter-disciplinary research, develop cutting-edge application and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health and sustainable cities,” Sitharaman said.

The announcement has garnered a lot of praise from the industry, for instance Rajesh Gopinathan, former MD & CEO of TCS calling it a forward-looking move that will "fortify the digital spine of the country".

Purushothaman KG, Partner and Head, Digital Solutions & Telecommunications Industry Leader, KPMG in India had said, "To achieve the vision of 'Make AI work for India', the COEs will need to shift focus from experimental to applied technology, take advantage of innovation in ancillary technologies around Automation and low code platforms, drive focus on upskilling and responsible AI."