New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced the setting up of a Centre for Excellence in AI for education with an outlay of Rs 500 crore.
Presenting her 8th Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said, "I had announced three Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for agriculture, health, and sustainable cities in 2023. Now a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education will be set up with a total outlay of Rs 500 crore."
The government has been aggressively pushing for AI investment. In March 2024, it approved Rs 10,372 crore for The India AI Mission.
The five year mission intends to build a comprehensive AI system by expanding computing access, enhancing data quality, and advancing indigenous AI capabilities.
With these centres, the government aims to foster "interdisciplinary research and development of cutting-edge applications" on AI.
On Medical education, the Finance Minister proposed the addition of 10,000 new seats in medical colleges next year, with a long-term goal of expanding capacity by 75,000 seats over the next five years.
"Our government has added almost 1.1 lakh undergraduate and postgraduate medical education seats in 10 years, an increase of 130%. In the next year, 10,000 additional seats will be added," she said.
The Economic Survey tabled in the Parliament on Friday reported that the share of government health expenditure in the overall health expenditure has increased from 29% in FY15 to 48% in FY22.
Sitharaman said, "The total number of students in 23 IITs has increased 100 percent from 65,000 to 1.35 lakh in the past 10 years. Additional infrastructure will be created in the five IITs started after 2014 to facilitate education for 6,500 more students".
She added that the hostel and other infrastructure capacity at IIT, Patna, will also be expanded.
