When it comes to taking new leaps of innovation, India’s premier academic institutes have always led the way. Besides launching new and diverse courses, producing exceptional research, now the institutions have turned towards some exciting initiatives to nurture talents and create opportunities for realising the true potential of AI. Here are some of the top ambitious pushes from academia in 2021 to further develop the AI ecosystem.

• IIT Madras partnering with Taylor & Francis Group: The collaboration between the two - Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBCDSAI) at IIT-Madras and Taylor & Francis Group in the field of AI and data science was initiated to amplify the research in the domain. The recent Stanford University Artificial Index Report 2021 has highlighted India as the country with the highest ‘relative AI -skill penetration’ and hence the time fits in with the approach from industry and academia to share knowledge and expertise for the larger good. Professor Balaraman Ravindran who is the head of RBCDSAI believes that the partnership will help penetrate research to a larger base and the assistance will further fuel the research promotion.
• IISc sets up AI-ML Centre with Kotak Mahindra Bank: In a partnership, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has announced the setting up of a state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (AI-ML) Centre, aka Kotak-IISc AI-ML Centre (under the CSR initiative of Kotak) at the IISc campus in Bengaluru. The Centre is set up with an aim to offer Bachelor’s, Master’s and short-term courses in areas such as artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning, deep learning, reinforcement learning, fintech, computer vision, natural language processing, robotics, computational finance and risk management, fraud analytics, cyber security, blockchain, biomedical engineering and technology, etc. 
• It will also be responsible for promoting cutting-edge research and innovation in AI and ML and developing the talent pool from across the country to come out with effective solutions to meet the industry’s emerging and future requirements.
• IIT Roorkee partnership to start Mehta Family School of Data Science and AI: IIT Roorkee, the first Engineering University of Independent India in partnership with USA’s Mehta Family Foundation (MFF) has established Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. The intention is to offer Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degree programs, and hence create skilled manpower in the domain of AI and data science. Academic alliances like this one between international academics and IIT Roorkee will prepare students to solve global issues like climate change, resource sustainability, and security. Apart from knowledge transfer, the partnership is poised to incentivise entrepreneurship and help startups in the field of AI and data science grow. It further supports the ‘Make-in-India' and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiatives to make India self-reliant.
• Teerthanker Mahaveer University MoU with NVIDIA: Teerthanker Mahaveer University (TMU), Moradabad signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU0 with the American tech giant – NVIDIA to establish a Centre of Excellence for AI Research, within its premises. The initiative will bring artificial intelligence and machine learning to young minds and developers in the country. Engineers, data scientists and researchers will benefit from the NVIDIA Jetson AI/DL Embedded Lab, which will prepare them for potential jobs in AI and deep learning robotics. Access to NVIDIA’s expertise in AI technologies and some of the finest minds from the institution may result in bringing customised solutions for India’s unique problems.
• BITS Pilani and Woxsen University partners with Course5 Intelligence: One of India’s premier universities, BITS Pilani and one of the top private universities Woxsen University have entered into an AI-based research partnership with Course5 Intelligence - one of the data analytics and insights companies in India. Under this industry-academia collaboration, Course5 Intelligence is financing a three-year sponsored research programme for applying Cognitive Neuroscience methodologies and Multimodal Deep Learning to understand consumer behaviour, memory, attention and the consumer decision-making journey as part. The study will use behavioural economics (BE), deep learning techniques and brain-machine interface (BMI) to improve develop new solutions and products. Also, the company will provide faculty and students of the Woxsen university with internship projects in customer and marketing analytics.