India AI rolls out CoEs and Projects
The AI4India Weekly #22
This week, we spotlight the newly launched India’s Centres of Excellence (CoE) in AI that promise to revolutionize key sectors in India, including agriculture, healthcare, and smart cities. Spearheaded by prestigious Indian higher education institutions in collaboration with industry partners and startups, these CoEs are dedicated to driving innovation and delivering cutting-edge AI solutions that will significantly impact citizens and communities both locally and globally.
Additionally, we explore initiatives aimed at fostering responsible AI practices, featuring selected projects under the Safe & Trusted AI Pillar. In our "In the News" section, we discuss how India is positioning itself as a global leader in AI, exploring key initiatives and innovations shaping the future of technology in the country.
India’s Centres of Excellence (CoE) in AI: Catalyzing Innovation Across Agriculture, Healthcare, and Smart Cities
The newly announced India’s Centres of Excellence (CoE) in AI, spearheaded by leading Indian higher education institutions in collaboration with industry partners and startups, are set to revolutionize the Indian AI ecosystem. These CoEs aim to tackle critical sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, and urban development, driving innovation with cutting-edge AI solutions that will benefit not only Indian citizens but communities worldwide. Here's a closer look at each of these transformative initiatives:
1. India’s Centres of Excellence (CoE) in AI: Agriculture - IIT Ropar
Led by IIT Ropar, this CoE is poised to revolutionize farming practices by integrating AI with traditional agricultural knowledge. The Centre will leverage vast data on crop yields, weather patterns, and local conditions to provide real-time, AI-driven guidance on sowing, harvesting, and maintaining crop health. In addition to enhancing crop quality and minimizing losses, the Centre will promote biodiversity and address challenges in animal husbandry, making agriculture more sustainable and productive.
2. India’s Centres of Excellence (CoE) in AI: Healthcare - IIT Delhi & AIIMS New Delhi
This healthcare-focused CoE, led by IIT Delhi and AIIMS New Delhi, will be at the forefront of early disease prediction, diagnostics, and pandemic tracking. By harnessing AI to collect healthcare data and support clinical trials—including those involving AYUSH medicines—the Centre will tackle affordability and accessibility challenges in healthcare. The initiative aims to foster innovation in medical technology and build a robust technical infrastructure for healthcare research, leading to significant advancements in public health.
3. India’s Centres of Excellence (CoE) in AI: Sustainable Cities - IIT Kanpur
The AI Centre for Sustainable Cities, led by IIT Kanpur, will harness AI for smarter city planning, resource optimization, and traffic management. By integrating data from sensors, GIS maps, and satellite imagery, the Centre will predict and manage urban resource needs, improving infrastructure and public space design. Shared infrastructure across Agriculture, Health, and Sustainable Cities will optimize costs and resources, enhancing the overall efficiency of urban planning.
With a collective mission to transform key sectors and create sustainable solutions, these AI Centres of Excellence represent a significant leap forward for India’s AI ecosystem and its global impact.
Empowering Responsible AI: Projects Selected Under Safe & Trusted AI Pillar
In alignment with India’s mission to enable an ecosystem of ethical and secure AI, several cutting-edge projects have been selected under the Safe & Trusted AI Pillar to advance Responsible AI practices. This initiative focuses on developing indigenous tools and frameworks that ensure AI technologies are deployed safely, transparently, and equitably. Here’s a closer look at the final selected projects, each addressing critical aspects of Responsible AI:
Machine Unlearning by IIT Jodhpur: Aimed at tackling the complex issue of machine "unlearning," this project explores methods to safely remove learned data from generative models, ensuring that AI systems adapt and evolve responsibly.
Synthetic Data Generation by IIT Roorkee: This project seeks to design synthetic data generation techniques to mitigate biases in datasets, thereby enabling fairer AI models. Additionally, it will establish a framework for reducing bias across machine learning pipelines.
AI Bias Mitigation Strategy by NIT Raipur: Focused on developing bias mitigation strategies, this project targets healthcare systems to ensure AI-driven decisions are unbiased and trustworthy, enhancing the reliability of AI in critical healthcare applications.
Explainable AI Framework by DIAT Pune & Mindgraph Technology Pvt. Ltd. : This initiative will develop explainable and privacy-preserving AI frameworks focussing on transparent AI-driven security solutions that protect user privacy.
Privacy Enhancing Strategy by IIT Delhi, IIT Dharwad, IIIT Delhi & TEC: Privacy is at the forefront of this project, which aims to build robust privacy-preserving machine learning models, ensuring user data is secure and protected in AI applications.
AI Ethical Certification Framework by IIIT Delhi & TEC: This project introduces ‘Nishpaksh’ : tools to assess fairness in AI models, offering an ethical certification framework that promotes transparency and accountability in AI systems.
AI Algorithm Auditing Tool by Civic Data Labs: An open-source toolkit designed for algorithmic auditing, ParakhAI will enable participatory assessments of AI models, ensuring they meet ethical standards.
AI Governance Testing Framework - Track-LLM by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham & TEC: This project will develop a comprehensive governance and risk assessment framework for large language models (LLMs), ensuring they are transparent, accountable, and aligned with regulatory requirements.
These selected projects represent a significant step in building responsible, trustworthy AI systems, further solidifying India’s position as a global leader in ethical AI governance.
ANRF Unveils PMECRG and Maha: EV-Mission to Drive AI and EV Innovation
The Applied Research National Fund (ANRF) has launched two major initiatives to drive innovation in AI and mobility. The PMECRG (Prime Minister's Empowerment of Collaborative Research Groups) Program supports collaborative research between academia, industry, and government, providing resources for projects that address national challenges in AI, robotics, and emerging technologies. It offers researchers a chance to impact sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and urban development.
The Maha: EV-Mission focuses on advancing electric vehicle (EV) technology, promoting innovation in battery tech, charging infrastructure, and autonomous driving. This initiative supports startups aiming to position India as a leader in clean and intelligent transportation solutions.
Job Opportunities
Leadership Roles at IndiaAI
IndiaAI is recruiting for four key leadership positions, offering a chance to shape the future of AI initiatives in the country. Don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to India’s AI landscape! Read More
In The News
The Future of AI and India - An overview of how India is positioned to leverage AI for economic growth and global leadership, highlighting key initiatives and collaborations.
AI for India vs. AI for Bharat - This article explores the differences between AI applications designed for urban India and those tailored for rural Bharat, emphasizing the need for inclusive AI strategies.
Leveraging AI to Study Plant Species Distribution - Researchers are using AI to analyze the geographical distribution of plant species, aiming to enhance biodiversity conservation efforts.
Andrew Ng’s Fund Invests in Indian AI Healthcare Firm Jivi - Renowned AI expert Andrew Ng's investment fund makes its first investment in India by backing Jivi, a healthcare AI startup, signaling confidence in India’s AI landscape.
Government Plans AI Safety Institute - The Indian government is keen on establishing an Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute to develop safety protocols and standards for AI technologies, ensuring responsible innovation.
Bringing Data Daan to Life: Podcasting with NotebookLLM
Google’s NotebookLM offers a groundbreaking capability to convert documents and URLs into lively podcasts. We applied this tool to our Data Daan white paper, and the result was a natural-sounding conversation that effectively conveys the paper's insights without simply reading it aloud.
While it may not fully replace traditional podcasts, this tool serves as an excellent resource for making complex information more accessible and engaging for all users.
Listen to the podcast below!
#DataDaan - Donate for a Digital India
Aligned with the IndiaAI mission and the efforts from MeitY to ensure the availability of AI-usable data across govt, the #DataDaan campaign by AI4India.org is inviting participation from individuals and organizations to contribute valuable data for AI development in India. This initiative aims to gather diverse datasets to enrich the national data repository, supporting innovation across various sectors. We encourage everyone to read the detailed white paper on the campaign - https://bit.ly/DataDaan and fill out the form - http://bit.ly/3XfxD3H to contribute to this transformative effort.
This concerted push to make AI work for India highlights how data accessibility can unlock the potential for large-scale socio-economic transformation, driving innovation, and ensuring India’s competitive edge in the AI-driven global economy.
NOTE: The views expressed by the authors are their own. AI4India as a forum does not endorse any comments on specific brands, products, platforms or companies.
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