Budget: Academia, industry applaud push for AI

International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB) Director Prof Debabrata Das told TNIE this was a timely and good move.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

BENGALURU:  The Budget announcement on setting up three centres of excellence (COE) for Artificial Intelligence (AI) at top educational institutions has received an overwhelming response from academia and industry.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the Union Budget, said, “For realising the vision of ‘Make AI in India’ and ‘Make AI work for India’, three centres for excellence will be set up in top educational institutions. Leading industry players will partner in conducting interdisciplinary research and develop cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in areas of agriculture, health and sustainable cities. This will galvanize an effective ecosystem and nurture quality human resources in the field.”

International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB) Director Prof Debabrata Das told TNIE this was a timely and good move.

“AI is a thrust area for which there are applications in multiple sectors, from space, defence and security to data, communication, health, agriculture, transportation and smart cities etc. India should do deep research and come out with some more indigenous algorithms which will lead to more Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) of our nation,” said Das.

He added that these COE will “help solve India’s challenges which require AI-ML (machine learning)-based technologies for optimised performance”.

“The government’s focus on integrating technology and aiding agriculture, healthcare and education verticals need to be applauded. A big boost has been given to AI, with the setting up of three COE in top education institutes under the guidance of industry veterans,” said CFO, Crayon Software Experts India, Rajendra Chitale.

He added that this will “further our efforts in easing our lives and achieving better outcomes with the help of AI. We are certainly looking ahead to the government’s National Data Governance Policy which aims at anonymizing individual data. This is of much need when data is the main ingredient for 360-degree development”.

“The focus on AI development and deployment by multiple initiatives such as the setting up of AI labs and upskilling youth in software and hardware tech, will create an ecosystem which will act as a catalyst for Indian tech and startup ecosystem, to catapult itself as the benchmark globally and also provide the next generation of tech visionaries and leaders for the world,” said founder and Group CEO, Purple Quarter, Roopa Kumar.

“These COE will undoubtedly serve as a bridge between educational institutions and leading industries, with the goal of researching and developing practical AI applications across different verticals, including agriculture, health and sustainable cities. Furthermore, the focus on building a strong AI ecosystem in India and training skilled AI professionals will assist new businesses in acquiring the right talent. This also puts a lot of responsibility on education institutes to strengthen the curriculum in the field,” said co-founder and Director, SuperBot (PinnacleWorks) Sarvagya Mishra.

FKCCI president BV Gopal Reddy said it is a progressive, development-oriented and people-friendly budget. He welcomed the decision to do away with many compliances to ensure ease of doing business as it will unleash the potential of the economy. An additional corpus of Rs.9,000 crore has been announced for the MSME credit guarantee, but they have to wait and see how fast it will reach the beneficiary.

“The increase of the scope of Digi locker for MSMEs and the proposal of Jan Vishwas bill to amend 42 laws will further help in reducing compliance requirements for industry,” said KASSIA president KN Narasimhamurthy.  Dr L Ravindran, president of BCIC (Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce) and MD, of Wealthmax Group of companies said the budget has focused extensively on fuelling domestic demand and public investment to propel growth by facilitating infra development.

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