Delhi govt submits proposal to Centre on setting up two AI centres of excellence

New Delhi, Feb 26 (PTI) The Delhi government has sent a proposal to the Centre for setting up two AI centres of excellence to promote research and development in artificial intelligence (AI), officials said on Thursday.

The proposed centres would be set up at the Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT) and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University — both Delhi government institutions, they said.

“We are yet to receive a response from the central government over the proposal. Once the proposal is approved, we will move forward for a tripartite agreement including the Centre,the universities concerned and the Delhi government,” said a senior Delhi government officer.

The proposal was submitted recently to the Centre under the India AI Mission, he said. The India AI Mission was launched by the Government of India in March 2024, with an outlay of ₹10,372 crore, aiming to build a strong AI ecoystem in the country over a period of five years.

The Centre in January this year invited proposals from the states for establishing AI centres. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) invited the proposals to set up Centres of Excellence (CoE) for artificial intelligence, aiming to spread AI innovation across the country.

The initiative marks the initiatives to develop AI hubs across the country covering fields like healthcare, agriculture, infrastructure among others.

The Centre will provide financial help to the states where these AI centres will be set up, utilising the India AI Mission corpus. These state AI centres of excellence will complement the existing centres of excellence set up at Delhi, Ropar and Kanpur IITs, officials said.

The Information Technology (IT) department of Delhi government is pushing for various digital initiatives and policy framework, including formulation of an IT Policy which will have AI as one of the key areas to be focussed for an innovation driven growth, officials added.