Nasscom partners with NITI Aayog, Karnataka government to give AI adoption a boost

These initiatives are expected to strengthen the ecosystem around artificial intelligence and find application of this technology across sectors.

To harness the benefits from an emerging technology like artificial intelligence (AI) through collaborations, the National Association of Software and Services (Nasscom) has entered into partnerships with Niti Aayog and the Karnataka government.

Nasscom along with the Karnataka government has launched the Centre of Excellence for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (CoE–DSAI), in Bengaluru. It also signed an MoU with Niti Aayog to collaboratively foster applied research, accelerating adoption and ethics, privacy and security.

The CoE and MoU are aimed at strengthening the country’s AI ecosystem. Both these initiatives will act as a platform for intelligence-sharing and technology collaboration between stakeholders to build collective capabilities for the industry and country in the cutting-edge area of AI, according to a statement from Nasscom.

Nasscom will facilitate collaboration between Niti Aayog and CoEs and will include Niti Aayog as a knowledge partner. Also, leveraging their skilling platform FutureSkills, Nasscom and Niti Aayog will together accelerate innovation and cultivate skilling in India.

The CoE initiative is a nationwide programme on innovation focusing on solutions in smart manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, agriculture, energy, IoT, banking & financial services, retail, telecom, and host of emerging technologies.

The CoE-DSAI aims to support SMBs, by fast-tracking their product development, provide market access to enterprises and assist them by co-creating programmes along with other industry partners and startups to solve complex and real-world business problems.

The centre will also partner with universities to develop and provide access to right skill and talent alongside showcasing these emerging businesses across various Nasscom platforms.

Nasscom has also partnered with Intel and IBM as its founding members and technology advisors for augmenting and accelerating the data science and AI ecosystem in the country.

Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh said, “The vision behind the CoE is to act as a catalyst for developing the emerging technology startup ecosystem of the country as well as an accelerator of data science capabilities providing the concept and scale for industrial and societal needs. The CoE will also function as an enabler of funding, accelerating, mentoring and enterprise for the key emerging AI startups in the country.”