Tech giants partner with Gujarat gov to establish AI cluster

The Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat, IBM, Microsoft, and NASSCOM have all signed multiple MoUs to establish an AI cluster for the BFSI sector, as well as an AI Centre of Excellence (CoE) at GIFT in Gandhinagar.

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In addition, a capacity-building programme for 25,000 students and a STEM workshop for 10,000 high school students were launched. The MoUs were signed in the presence of Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat’s chief minister, important government figures, members of the academic community, and business executives.

Mona K Khandhar, Principal Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, GoG, said, “The proposed CoE for AI with Microsoft and NASSCOM will be India’s first initiative dedicated for Artificial intelligence, and the work will begin by next week. The Gujarat Government is focused on capacity building in AI and Deeptech. This initiative will train 25,000 students within the next three years. Under this initiative, the students will learn deeptech skills along with certification from prominent trainers like IBM.”

The development of AI use cases tailored to specific industries, safe data sharing, infrastructure setup, training AI models, pilot projects, and the widespread adoption of AI models are the main objectives of the CoE for AI and the AI cluster for BFSI.

According to Sandip Patel, Managing Director for IBM India & South Asia region, “We have been working in Gujarat for a long time. We have been managing the supply chains of big corporations like Amul. Artificial Intelligence is here and now we need to scale it up to provide a business environment enabled with AI.”