Centre to formally launch IIT-Madras's Bharat Bodhan AI on Thursday

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan chairs AI roundtable with edtech founders ahead of launch of IIT Madras-anchored Bharat Bodhan AI Foundation

The Centre will formally launch the IIT Madras-anchored Bharat Bodhan AI Foundation, a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for education, tomorrow, according to officials in the know.

 

“The launch will take place as part of the two-day-long Bharat Bodhan AI Conclave scheduled to be held on February 12 and 13, 2025,” officials told Business Standard.

 

Modelled on India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the CoE is incubated by IIT Madras as a Section 8 company (not-for-profit) to develop responsible, scalable and India-first AI solutions for education, skilling and research, aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

 

Ahead of the conclave, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday chaired an AI roundtable with founders of 10 Indian edtech startups ahead of the formal launch.

 

“This step comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s direction to create a sovereign AI capacity ecosystem in India,” Pradhan told reporters on the sidelines of the roundtable.

 

Wednesday’s roundtable brought together policymakers, academic leaders and emerging technology entrepreneurs to discuss how AI can be leveraged to transform India’s education system, aligning with the objectives of NEP 2020.

 

Participating startups included Arivihan, Fermi AI, Khare.AI, Seekho, SpeakX, SuperKalam, SuperNova, Vedantu, ConveGenius and Virohan.

 

“This is part of a series of initiatives by the Ministry of Education to harness the potential of AI, bringing together Indian startups developing AI-first solutions across K-12 learning, test preparation, upskilling, language learning and skill education, with a focus on students in underserved areas,” the ministry said in a statement.

 

It added that the roundtable was organised as a precursor to the upcoming India AI Impact Summit. “The insights from the roundtable will inform policy and ecosystem deliberations at the India AI Impact Summit, with a focus on responsible AI adoption, safeguards, and pathways for scaling impact across sectors, including education,” it said.