tThe Ministry of Education has selected four best labs to lead the AI Centers of Excellence (COES) in India. aiims Delhi, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and IIT Ropar was chosen to lead AI COES with a focus on healthy and sustainable cities and Agriculture, each Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chohan recently notified the Congress. By bringing together the best research institutes and industry leaders, and Government agency, COES, aims to bridge the gap between academia and The industry ensures that research leads to real-world solutions rather than theoretical.
Seamless industry integration, availability of high-quality annotated datasets, scalability of AI solutions for diverse Indian contexts, and Regulatory concerns surrounding AI ethics and Data privacy is part of the issue COEs deals with. Ensuring that research does not remain limited to academic outcomes and leads to real-world impacts is one of the key hurdles. Furthermore, the AI sector in India is still evolving; and Lack of structured AI datasets in sectors like agriculture and Healthcare is a challenge in model training and Unfolding. Another important issue is to make AI solutions accessible to everyone, including small farmers and Tier-2 city planner and Tier 3 cities.
“The focus area of COES includes disease detection and Advances in healthcare, precision agriculture technology to improve agricultural productivity, and AI-driven smart city solutions for urban sustainability. By creating scalable AI models, the initiative is integrating these technologies with national programs to ensure large-scale deployment and Professor Manoj Gaur, director of IT Jammu, says and The lead investigator (PI) of the initiative was allocated a total fiscal expenditure of Rs 990 over the period from 2023-24 to 2027-28 as part of the government’s “Make AI in India.” and Make AI work for the vision of India.
The initiative directly supports the vision of “creating Indian AI” and therefore focuses on the development of Indigenous AI technology, rather than relying on foreign solutions. “In addition, we will use some of the funds to create open source AI tools. and Particularly, the dataset for the agricultural sector is to ensure small-scale farmers. and Rajeev Ahuja, director of IIT Ropar, points out his involvement with AI-Coe in agriculture, Rajeev Ahuja focuses on providing AI solutions to enhance accurate agriculture, crop health monitoring and post-harvest technology.
Unlike traditional academic research centers at higher education institutions (HEIs) that focus primarily on basic research. and Theoretical advancement, AI Coes is designed to be industrial oriented and Inherently interdisciplinary. “Their main mission is to develop commercially viable AI applications, ensuring that the research carried out does not remain limited to academic papers, but leads to concrete technical solutions. Another important difference is to directly integrate these Coes and industry and Startups work with practitioners who understand market demand to promote innovation. Unlike academic research centres that function independently within each institution, these COEs act as part of the national AI ecosystem, bringing multiple institutions, including multiple institutions. iitsnits, iiits, and Other stakeholders working on unified research goals,” says Professor Ahuja.
Through industry-led projects and internships, and In mentorship programs within an academic environment, COES ensures graduates gain practical experience in AI technology. Furthermore, COES will greatly support incorporating AI into courses by introducing emerging AI trends, interdisciplinary learning and interdisciplinary learning. and Industry-related case studies. The key is that these three Coes will work closely with the newly announced AI COE to potentially impact the curriculum of education,” says Professor Gaur.
Discussing the wider impact of the initiative, Professor Rangan Banerjee, Director of IIT Delhi, said, “Each of COEs, set up as independent section 8 nonprofit companies, is part of the government’s mission in the union budget for AI integration in various fields with the aim of making a difference in people’s lives. For example, IIT Delhi is collaboratively involved. aiims One of the COES in the healthcare domain Delhi. Our aim is to catalyze research and See how AI can be used to enable more cost-effective healthcare delivery through many projects with industry involvement and PhD scholar. ”
Emphasizing that the initiative is still in its early stages, Banerjee says that each COES typically requires funding of around 300 crore over a period of time to achieve the proposed results.
“In transforming healthcare, this grant will contribute to human resource training from healthcare. and Technical perspective – In addition to medical device development/use, regulatory clearance, clinical trials and Seed funding for companies formed from this initiative,” says Dr. Kritika Rangarakhan, Associate Professor of Oncology. and PI, Healthcare AI Excellence Center, aiims Delhi.
“There are some unresolved questions about safety and reliability. and Responsibilities related to AI technology. This is even more important for healthcare COEs that have a lifespan soon and Relevant death questions,” says Chetan Arora, professor of Computer Science. and Engineering, IIT Delhi.
To maximize profits, the challenges of COEs will be addressed through industry cooperation and government support. and Open Data Initiative. Developing localized AI models to meet local requirements and Language preferences also ensure wider adoption.
on the other hand iits As a leading agency, this initiative is not limited to them. The selection process followed a strict national call for proposals issued by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in November 2023. Ranked within the top 100 categories across NIRF, HEIs were invited to apply. The institute’s choice was based on their strong research capabilities, AI expertise. and A broad network of academics and Industry collaboration. “Each centre will serve as a national consortium and gather top academics and Research institutions, industry partners, startups, and Other institutions. For example, IIT Ropar’s Agricultural AI-Coe includes partners such as IIT Guwahati, Nit Meghalaya, IIT Hyderabad and IIT Tirupati. and Knitted Hamill pool among several others. Healthy ai-coe aiims Delhi IIT Delhi works with institutions such as IIT Madras, IIT Bombay and others. aiims Patna, University of Ashoka, Mahemanipal, IIIT Hyderabad, and IISC Bangalore. Similarly, IIT Kanpur’s sustainable urban AI-COE involves key stakeholders such as Chennai Smart City, Bangalore Traffic Police, Adani Total Gas Ltd, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Gandhinagar and NIT Calicut. and IISC Bangalore,” says Professor Gaur.
“Each of these consortiums includes multidimensional industry participation, along with involvement of state governments, startups and urban local bodies. and NGO. For example, IIT Kanpur-led AI-COE for sustainable cities, founded as the section 8 company Airawat Research Foundation (ARF), is an AI-COE for sustainable cities, with the aim of providing industry, academia, and and Other stakeholders to make AI vision successful through cutting-edge research and Development of scalable AI solutions and Products that have disproportionate social impact. This will further zinc-plated the effective AI ecosystem and “We are pleased to announce that we are committed to providing a wide range of services,” said Sachchida Nand Tripathi, project director for AI Coe-Sustainable Cities. and Professor in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and IIT Kanpur’s Faculty of Sustainable Energy Engineering.
