- By Sarju Saran Tiwari
- Mon, 02 Jun 2025 03:09 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
AI Education India: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in its recent report titled 'India's AI Revolution: A Roadmap to Viksit Bharat' highlighted how the government has been expanding AI education in the country, resulting in increasing demand for AI professionals that is expected to touch 1 million by next year. This unprecedented surge reflects India's commitment to becoming a global leader in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.
The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has revealed a significant increase in approved BTech seats for the 2024-25 academic year, with numbers rising to 14.9 lakh. This marks a nearly 16 percent growth over four years, demonstrating the education sector's rapid expansion to meet industry demands. The surge is largely attributed to an over 50 percent rise in seats for in-demand fields such as Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), Data Science, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, and Blockchain.
As mentioned in the report, under the IndiaAI Future Skills initiative, the government is expanding AI education across undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD programs, providing various fellowships to full-time PhD scholars researching AI in the top 50 NIRF-ranked institutes. Additionally, to enhance accessibility, data and AI labs are being established in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, with a model IndiaAI Data Lab already set up at NIELIT Delhi.
The government is addressing workforce challenges by revamping university curricula to include AI, 5G, and semiconductor design, aligning with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. This ensures that graduates acquire job-ready skills, reducing the transition time between education and employment.
Government Initiatives Driving AI Education Revolution
The IndiaAI Future Skills initiative represents a comprehensive approach to building India's AI workforce. The program focuses on creating specialized fellowships for PhD researchers and establishing cutting-edge laboratories in smaller cities, ensuring equitable access to advanced AI education across the nation's diverse geographic landscape.
India's Indigenous AI Models and Language Technologies Revolution:
India's Foundational Large Language Models: IndiaAI is actively driving the development of indigenous foundational AI models, including both Large Language Models (LLMs) and Small Language Models (SLMs), through a targeted call for proposals to stimulate local research.
Digital India BHASHINI: This AI-powered platform is designed to break language barriers, offering easy access to digital services and the internet in various Indian languages. It supports voice-based access and facilitates content creation in local languages, promoting digital inclusion.
BharatGen: Launched in 2024, BharatGen is the world's first government-funded multimodal LLM initiative. It aims to revolutionize public service delivery and citizen engagement by utilizing foundational models in language, speech, and computer vision, backed by leading Indian academic institutions.
Sarvam-1 AI Model: Optimized for Indian languages, Sarvam-1 is a 2-billion parameter LLM. It supports ten major Indian languages and is highly effective for tasks like language translation, text summarization, and generating diverse content.
Chitralekha: Developed by AI4Bhārat, Chitralekha is an open-source video transcreation platform. It empowers users to generate and edit audio transcripts in a wide range of Indic languages, streamlining content localization efforts.
Hanooman’s Everest 1.0: This multilingual AI system by SML currently supports 35 Indian languages, with ambitious plans to expand its coverage to 90 languages. Everest 1.0 aims to offer broad linguistic support across India.
Universal AI University: India's First Dedicated AI Institution
The first AI university in India is Universal AI University, located in Karjat, Maharashtra. Established after the passing of the Universal AI University, Karjat Act, 2022, it is recognized by UGC and AICTE. The university is designed "By Industry for Industry" and endorsed by 60 global CEOs, offering state-of-the-art facilities including high-tech classrooms and immersive AR/VR labs.
Industry-Academia Partnership Shaping Future Workforce
Meanwhile, IIT Madras has launched five new online AI courses on its SWAYAM Plus platform, offered free of cost to make AI education accessible to learners from all academic backgrounds. This initiative, combined with industry-focused curricula and practical training programs, ensures students develop skills directly applicable to real-world AI challenges and opportunities.