The government will set up a new centre of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) for education with an outlay of Rs 500 crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during her Union Budget 2025-26 speech.
Speaking during her Budget speech, Sitharaman said, “I had announced three centres of excellence in artificial intelligence for agriculture, health and sustainable cities in 2023. Now, a centre of excellence in artificial intelligence for education will be set up with a total outlay of ₹500 crore.”
The government will also support domestic manufacturing capacity, sectors will be identified with an objective criteria. There is a huge opportunity for industry 4.0 which needs high skills and talent, the Finance Minister said.
Sitharaman also revealed plans for five National Centres of Excellence for Skilling, designed to equip youth with industry-relevant expertise. “These centres will be set up with global partnerships to support Make for India, Make for the World manufacturing,” Sitharaman stated. The initiative will cover curriculum design, training of trainers, a skill certification framework, and regular assessments.
These moves come amid the meteoric rise of AI across the world, and concerns that it could displace a number of jobs.
Arguing that India’s workforce in low-skill and low-value-added services remains vulnerable to artificial intelligence (AI), the Economic Survey 2024-25 released Friday called for the creation of “robust institutions,” which could help transition workers to medium- and high-skilled jobs, where AI can augment their efforts rather than replace them.
“Although the impact of AI on labour will be felt across the world, the problem is magnified for India, given its size and its relatively low per capita income,” the Survey said.
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The Survey proposed the concept of “stewarding institutions,” which would be “agile, crosscutting across sectors and up to date on the latest developments, so that they are equipped to identify both opportunities and threats. Stewarding institutions will have to be responsible for designing an approach that delicately balances public welfare without stifling innovation”.
It clarified that stewarding “does not imply placing restrictions on innovation or dictating a narrow set of applications for technology,” but means that policymakers should “demonstrate a certain degree of cognisance when it comes to emerging technologies, so that when the need arises, they stand well-placed to mitigate any adverse effects that emerge as by-products of technological applications”.
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