E-Paper
UP Guv calls for time-bound AI roadmaps in universities
The gov also emphasised the need to make teachers AI-ready & said the relationship between teachers & AI should be one of collaboration rather than competition.
Prefer HTon Google
A two-day AI Manthan 2.0 concluded at the Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University (CSJMU) in Kanpur on Sunday, with Governor Anandiben Patel calling for a dedicated action plan and AI integration across subjects rather than just being taught as a standalone subject.
Delivering her address, Patel called for the outcomes of AI Manthan 2.0 to be converted into an action plan and said universities in UP should prepare clear and time-bound AI roadmaps covering education, research, administration, healthcare, agriculture and student skills.
IIT Delhi launches online executive program to prepare professionals for strategic leadership
"Do not fear AI; understand it," she said, urging students to make creativity, curiosity and human empathy their strengths and to move beyond being users to becoming innovators.
Emphasising employment and entrepreneurship, she said students should not merely seek jobs but develop the ability to create employment. She also called for Indian talent to develop indigenous AI using Indian data on secure digital infrastructure.
Higher education dept signs MoU on apprenticeship embedded courses in Himachal colleges
The governor cited applications including AI-based problem-solving in Mathematics, data analysis in Science, smart farming and weather forecasting, early disease detection, environmental monitoring, robotics and natural language processing.
She stressed "learning by doing", urging universities to encourage students to use AI to solve real-world problems involving farmers, water conservation, traffic management, malnutrition, language preservation and assistive technologies.
She also called for a dialogue between India's traditional knowledge systems and modern AI, including the use of technology to preserve manuscripts, languages, archaeological heritage and folk traditions.
IIT-Ropar signs MoA with Army Air Defence College, Gopalpur for MTech degree to Army officers
The governor also emphasised the need to make teachers AI-ready and said the relationship between teachers and AI should be one of collaboration rather than competition.
On healthcare and agriculture, she pointed to AI's potential in early disease detection, medical research, crop management, weather forecasting and precision agriculture. She said universities should launch selected pilot projects and scientifically assess their outcomes.
She stressed that AI must be accompanied by data privacy, cybersecurity, fairness, transparency and human judgement, describing "Safe and Trusted AI" as the foundation of the country's AI journey.
She said universities should not remain spectators to technological change but become leaders in it, adding that the "churn is concluding, but the mission is beginning".
She said the two-day event had brought together experts, academicians, researchers, industry representatives and students to examine AI's changing role in education, research, healthcare, agriculture, robotics, environment and urban development, governance and employment.
The governor highlighted the progress from AI Manthan 1.0, organised at AKTU, Lucknow, to the second edition at CSJMU.
She said more than 7 lakh undergraduate students in state universities had completed foundational AI courses, while more than 3 lakh students had received cyber security training in Hindi medium. Technical assistance had also been used in evaluating more than 3 lakh answer scripts.
Dr Sudhir M Bobde, OSD to the governor, outlined 14 key "ratnas" or takeaways from AI Manthan 2.0 and announced the formation of two mechanisms to take forward the outcomes of the summit: an AI Policy Advisory Group and an AI Implementation Group of Vice Chancellors.
The five-member AI Policy Advisory Group will be chaired by Prof PP Chakrabarti, Director, IIT Kharagpur. It will include Prof V Ramgopal Rao of BITS Pilani, a representative from the agriculture sector, Dr Preetika Rangarajan of AIIMS New Delhi, and Prof Vinay Kumar Pathak, Vice Chancellor, CSJMU.
The second group will focus on implementing AI initiatives across universities and sectors. It will include representatives from technical, medical, agricultural and general higher education.
Dr J P Pandey, Vice Chancellor of AKTU, will represent technical education, while the Vice Chancellor of KGMU will represent medical education. Dr Vijay Lakshmi, Vice Chancellor of Avadh University, Ayodhya, will represent agriculture, along with the Vice Chancellors of Meerut and Gorakhpur Universities.
Dr Bobde said the implementation group would not be restricted to five universities and that institutions could be brought into the initiative according to their areas of expertise. He said Sanskrit universities, Bhathkhande Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya and Dr Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University could also be included.
He stressed the importance of healthy competition among universities and highlighted the potential of universities with more than 50 years of history to digitise their legacy documents and photographs and use the data for AI training and model development.
