Industry 4.0: Uttar Pradesh govt to equip future workforce with AI

The Uttar Pradesh nodal technical university has tied up with technology major IBM for artificial intelligence (AI) and Cloud computing training to align the future workforce with the modern Industry 4.0 concept.

The state is also pushing for the ‘one district, one incubator’ scheme. 

Since the AI spend in India is projected to hit $5 billion by 2027, the Yogi Adityanath government is looking to tap the growing sector for job creation, self-employment, and catalysing startups.

State’s Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IBM for free online courses in such programmes across more than 500 affiliated colleges.

AKTU Vice Chancellor J P Pandey said the varsity was equipping its students with the new and evolving technologies to facilitate seamless placements in accordance with industry demand.

Under the MoU, IBM would offer free online courses to the registered students of the B Tech stream under the AKTU network.

According to a joint study released recently by Intel and International Data Corporation, AI spending in India is expected to grow 31.5 per cent from 2023. The growth is highest among the eight countries surveyed — Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Industry 4.0 refers to the integration of intelligent digital technologies into manufacturing and industrial processes. It covers a set of technologies spanning industrial IoT (internet of things) networks, AI, big data, robotics, automation.

The state is nudging the educational institutions to upgrade their curriculum in accordance with the demands of industry and evolving technologies.

As the state has the country’s 4th largest startup ecosystem, the government is taking steps to integrate education with incubators and facilitate angel funding to business ideas. It is planning to set up an incubator at every higher educational institution across 75 districts.

Currently, over 60 incubators are operational in the state.

The state boasts of about 10,000 recognised startups, of which 50 per cent have emerged from Tier-II and Tier-III cities, according to a KPMG report. Nearly 4,300 startups are being run by women entrepreneurs.

UP is home to eight of the total 108 unicorns in India, such as Paytm, Paytm Mall, India Mart, Moglix, Pine Labs, Innovaccer, InfoEdge, and Physics Wallah.