The advent of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence will spur educators, students, parents and policymakers to come together under a single roof to consider what skills the students require to navigate uncertainty, solve complex challenges and shape a meaningful future in this rapidly evolving economy. Moreover, it means embracing the challenge to access learning that fosters agency, awareness, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, connectedness and well-being. We have witnessed that deploying AI tools by well-trained and supported teachers can be invaluable for boosting progress towards this vision. AI can also aid in fostering the skills that students need to navigate and shape the future. Various AI tools can help enhance the critical thinking ability of students when used in sophisticated ways for deeper and more engaging learning.

The not-for-profit EPIC Foundation launched the first designed in India Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled, indigenously manufactured education tablet.

MILKYWAY, the first India-designed AI education tablet

The MILKYWAY Tab comes with an 8-inch 1280×800 IPS display, MediaTek MT8766A processor, 3/4GB RAM, 32/64GB storage, 5MP front and 8MP rear cameras, and a 5,100mAh battery. It is backed by Android 13, supports 4G LTE connectivity, and has a sleek design with 5-finger touch support. Besides this, the key features include:

• The integrated India-made BharatGPT virtual assistant to aid students.
• Options for video and chatbots.
• A speech translation app by CoRover.ai.

The tablets also come embedded with unique features of repairability and upgradability to address the pressing concerns of the digital divide and the accumulation of electronic refuse in India.

During the launch of the tablet, S Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, said, “It is a matter of great pride that we are launching an India-designed, India-inspired education tablet which will be of great use to a vast majority of students. It will inspire the youth to take up the mantra of design and making things in India, for India and the world.”

Dr. Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman of EPIC Foundation, said, “Aligned with our overarching goal of elevating Indian electronics to real Atmanirbharta, we want to build products in such a way that the components are easily replaceable and upgradable.”

How MIKLYWAY will empower students?

This tablet is able to address precisely two critical aspects of education and social empowerment: drive demand for Indian, repairable, sustainable electronics products and brands in huge impact/high-volume categories and remove financial and logistical obstacles that prevent schools from getting repairable, high impact devices and boost the life of the product.

Dr. Ajai Chowdhry noted, “Repair expenses surpassing the cost of purchasing a new device, the production of substandard goods and obsolescence strategies are not only pressing concerns of today but also exacerbate the escalating problem of electronic waste. Our repairable product will enable many jobs for repair engineers all over India.”

MILKYWAY is an active enabler of digital learning

The education tablet is aimed at playing an active enabler of digital learning as it is the first of its kind to be integrated into BharatGPT, the virtual assistant and will emphasise AI/ML-based inter-lingual translation for Indian languages to support language diversity of India, which also includes differently-abled fellow citizens as well.

MeitY Secretary S Krishnan added, “In the electronics sector, while we have large targets of increasing the overall exports from the country, which is undoubtedly important — when exports go up, the imports also go up simply because the value addition which happens in the country is still limited, and a significant portion is imported, assembled and then re-exported or used for domestic consumption”.

He further said that the surge in value addition to the electronic sector is vital, and thereby, there is a need to increase the share of electronic component production in India. According to him, these are MeitY’s next anticipated goals, which are riding on the success of the large-scale electronics PLI, the most successful PLI programme that the government of India has run recently.

• Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash