Business leaders join forces to build new university with focus on AI

With artificial intelligence and data science set to gain more importance in the next few years, some of India’s top companies have partnered together to build a new university, a Mint report stated.

The university is set to come up in Mohali in August this year. Companies like Motilal Oswal, HDFC, Axis Bank, Info Edge India, Mphasis Ltd have already committed funds towards this plan.

Neeraj Aggarwal, Chairman, Asia Pacific at Boston Consulting Group, told the publication that the university will be started in August with ₹750 Crore funding. The idea is to focus on educating students in the areas of AI, robotics, data science, economics and cyber-physical system.

Vineet Gupta, Managing Director, Jamboree Education, said the research in the university will be more focused on the technology needs of India in different areas such as agriculture, energy, healthcare systems. The university will initiate with 250 students and four UG programmes. Initially, 33% of students will come under scholarship. The founders are hoping to provide scholarship to 50% of students in the future.

Apart from this, many other private universities already have taken steps to prepare students in AI, robotics and data science that will cater to the needs of the growing Indian economy.

Vellore Institute of Technology is the first private institution to provide courses on AI and Machine learning. The course costs Rs 7.92 lakh. SRM Institute of Science and Technology also offers B.Tech in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for around Rs 10 lakh. University of Petroleum and Energy studies covers these courses under B.Tech and Engineering (Hons) for Rs 12-13 lakh.