Vice President calls for people-centric Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions in agriculture, health and education -Governance Now

Vice President calls for people-centric Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions in agriculture, health and education

Naidu urged educational institutions, researchers, and developers to come out with practical AI solutions in the fields of agriculture, health, and education.

GN Bureau | September 29, 2021

#people-centric Artificial Intelligence #AIOT #Artificial Intelligence of things #Vice President of India #M Venkaiah Naidu #IIT Jodhpur #AI in agriculture #AI in health #AI in education

The Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu has called for tapping the potential of revolutionary technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver benefits to the people and enhance the quality of life. In this regard, Naidu urged educational institutions, researchers, and developers to come out with practical AI solutions in the fields of agriculture, health, and education.

Enumerating possible applications for AI, Shri Naidu suggested industry and developers work towards solutions for precision agriculture to ensure quality farm output, bring about efficient grading of the produce, and enable better price discovery for farmers. He also suggested exploring AI-based smart solutions in health such as remote diagnosis, and automatic translation of English texts to Indian languages in education. "If such solutions can be scaled up, even a small gain in efficiency and productivity can bring positive change in the lives of millions of people", Shri Naidu said.

Addressing a gathering at IIT Jodhpur after laying the foundation of a fabrication laboratory for Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), Naidu remarked that technologies like AI and AIoT have been revolutionizing many sectors of the global economy in the last decade. He said that the ultimate aim of science and technology is to transform the lives of the people. “That should be the aim for the development of AI too”, he added.

Reflecting on the possibilities of AI in governance, Naidu advised governments to explore using AI to improve the timely delivery of services. He mentioned the example of Direct Benefit Transfer through Jan-Dhan accounts and said that this has plugged leakages and protected people from exploitation to a great extent. Therefore, he also urged universities to work with local governments and develop intelligent solutions in governance and welfare. The Vice President further observed that such collaboration can give exposure to the students, test their knowledge in the real world, and enable them to come up with innovative solutions to some of society's long-standing problems.

Touching upon the economic potential of AI, Naidu noted that AI has the potential to add USD 957 billion or 15% of the current gross value added to India's economy by 2035. Highlighting that AI could possibly displace many routine jobs, Shri Naidu stressed the importance of skilling and training youth to match the demands of changing job markets in the time of Industrial Revolution 4.0.

The Vice President suggested making basic courses in computing and data science mandatory for students across disciplines to keep students abreast of the latest technological developments. "This is important in today's data-driven world", Naidu added.

Naidu lauded the recent decision of 14 engineering colleges across eight States to offer courses in regional languages and called for more such professional courses in higher education in Indian languages. He also said that AI holds immense potential in the promotion of Indian languages by way of an automatic translation from English and other languages.

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