Centre announces 3 CoEs for AI in healthcare, agriculture & sustainable cities

The CoEs in AI, to be built with a total financial outlay of Rs. 990.00 Crore over the period of FY 2023-24 to FY 2027-28, is aimed to further boost the start-up ecosystem in the country.

"The three AI-CoEs would emerge as temples of global public good, and also emerge as solution providers of the world," said Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Education.

"AI-CoEs will create a new generation of job creators and wealth creators and establish new paradigms of global public good," the minister said.

The three AI CoEs are aimed at realising the vision of "Viksit Bharat," and will be led by top educational institutions, with industry partners and startups. They will conduct interdisciplinary research, develop cutting-edge applications, and create scalable solutions in these three areas, said the Ministry of Education.

It noted that the initiative aims to galvanise an effective AI ecosystem and nurture quality human resources in these critical fields.

Further, the CoEs are not just institution-based but are designed to serve the entire country, said K. Sanjay Murthy, Secretary of the Department of Higher Education.

Stressing the importance of interdisciplinary research, he mentioned that with the right kind of collaboration among like-minded resources, optimum results can be achieved.

According to Dr. Sridhar Vembu, CEO and Founder of Zoho, these projects will holistically benefit the health of villages, cities, and the people of the country.

"Nurturing the country's talent pool is important to ensure its members flourish and serve the nation in the coming 10 to 20 years," said Vembu. He added that the CoEs will bootstrap numerous efforts, create companies, nurture talent, and generate opportunities for our talent pool.

The government has also constituted an industry-heavy Apex Committee co-chaired by Vembu to oversee the implementation of the initiative.