The Indian Institute of Technology in Madras (IIT-Madras) and an Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-Ahmedabad)-incubated start-up, GUVI, are partnering with the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to offer Python and artificial intelligence (AI) upskilling courses free. The free courses will be available to more than one million socially and economically disadvantaged youngsters in India. The Python and AI skills included in this initiative focus on face recognition technology that any beginner can master, an official has stated.
The Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, launched NEAT 3.0 (National Educational Alliance for Technology – AICTE) in New Delhi on 3 January during an event. The free one million Python programming and advanced AI courses will be taught in various vernacular languages including English, Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu, among others. Free access to the courses will be available through a registration process enabled on GUVI’s official website. Learners can also opt to avail an IIT-Madras certificate on the GUVI Python programming course by taking an assessment and paying a nominal fee to IIT-Madras.
According to a news report, Pradhan praised start-ups like GUVI for their contribution to the distribution of free edtech coupons as part of the NEAT 3.0. Addressing the NEAT 3.0 launch event, Pradhan stated that the in 21st Century, he was glad to see start-ups founded by Indian youth are leading globally. He said he appreciated GUVI for joining AICTE to lead the initiative to empower the socially and economically disadvantaged youth through its online and vernacular approach to tech learning. AICTE plans to distribute free edtech coupons to students whose annual family income is less than IN₹800,000 (US$10,769). These free coupons will be distributed through the NEAT portal as well as through the GUVI website.
The vision of GUVI aligns with the aims of NEAT to bring the best technological products in education pedagogy on a single platform for the convenience of learners. Speaking about this initiative to empower Indian youth an official from the start-up informed that NEAT aims to bestow the best employable skills on the nation’s youth. Python Programming and AI skills offered through this collaboration will be of strong support for the deserving students, helping them to grow in their careers. The collaboration with AICTE widens the availability of edtech resources for students towards better upskilling online.
The AI market in India is expected to grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2% and reach US$7.8 billion in total revenues by 2025, according to a report. Businesses in India are expected to accelerate the adoption of both AI-centric and AI non-centric applications for the next five years. Further, the AI software segment has the potential to dominate the market and grow from US$2.8 billion in 2020 at a CAGR of 18.1% by the end of 2025.
Organisations are leveraging multiple AI applications in their customer relationship and enterprise risk management, and other operational platforms for daily management. They are also using AI to scale up supply chains. This is primarily aimed at improving return on investment (RoI) and cost savings. Indian organisations plan to invest in AI to address current business scenarios across functions, such as customer service, human resources (HR), IT automation, and security, among others. Increasing business resilience and enhancing customer retention are among the top business objectives for using AI by Indian enterprises. About 51% of organisations process transactional and social media data through AI and machine learning (ML) solutions.