The Department of Science and Technology in Gujarat, along with IBM, Microsoft, and NASSCOM, have joined forces to establish an AI cluster for the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector, as well as an AI Centre of Excellence (CoE) at GIFT in Gandhinagar. The partnership also includes the launch of a capacity building program for 25,000 students and a STEM workshop for 10,000 secondary school students. The MoUs were signed in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and various government officials, academia representatives, and industry leaders.
Mona K Khandhar, Principal Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology in Gujarat, emphasized the importance of the proposed CoE for AI with Microsoft and NASSCOM, which will be India’s first initiative dedicated to Artificial Intelligence. The focus will be on capacity building in AI and Deeptech, with plans to train 25,000 students in the next three years. The initiative will provide students with deeptech skills and certification from leading trainers like IBM.
The CoE for AI and AI Cluster for BFSI will concentrate on developing sector-specific AI use cases, secure data sharing, infrastructure setup, training of AI models, pilot projects, and the adoption of AI models in various sectors. Collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar to set up STEM workshops for around 10,000 students per year was also highlighted.
As part of the capacity building program, collaborations were made with various institutions including Gujarat Technological University (GTU), PDEU, IITRAM, Ganpat University, L&T Edutech, TATA Consultancy Services, and Silver Touch Technologies. Sandip Patel, managing director of IBM India and South Asia region, stressed the importance of scaling up AI to provide an AI-enabled business environment. He emphasized the need for AI skills development based on IMB’s Global Auction Report, which highlighted the increasing usage of AI in Indian companies and the challenges faced in scaling due to limited skills and tools availability.
To address the needs for scaling AI in business, IBM has developed the Watson platform, which helps businesses manage data, utilize language models, and addresses data residency issues through a hybrid design. Patel concluded by emphasizing the significant impact of artificial intelligence in technology and the need for India to embrace it for future growth.
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https://www.financialexpress.com/business/industry-ibm-microsoft-nasscom-ink-mous-with-guj-gov-to-strengthen-the-deeptech-initiative-program-3539081/lite/