Govt, industry to overhaul India’s AI curriculum with focus on practical skills

New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) The Central government is collaborating with industry to comprehensively overhaul the AI curriculum, including in B.Tech Computer Science and allied curricula, in Indian educational institutions, an official statement said on Thursday.

The overhaul aims to boost practical exposure, faculty readiness and create a flexible pathway for students, the statement from the Ministry of Electronics & IT said.

Union Minister for Electronics & IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, held a high-level meeting with the AI Curriculum Taskforce, here in this regard.

The Taskforce conducted a baseline study of the existing Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) Computer Science, in partnership with industry experts and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM).

The study acknowledged that AI coverage in the Indian curriculum has expanded but identified significant gaps in pedagogy, infrastructure, and practical exposure in fields such as Generative AI, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) and foundational model development.

The exercise recommended shifting from lecture-based teaching to a learning anchored in real industry use cases from the first semester. It suggested embedding AI courses within the formal academic credit system with a structured semester-wise rollout and increasing practical exposure to between 40 per cent and 75 per cent depending on degree and specialisation.

“Responsible AI and AI Governance integrated across all semesters instead of standalone modules and a flexible pathway to students providing a Certificate after Year 1, a Diploma after Year 2, and an Advanced Diploma after Year 3” were among other recommendations.

Faculty development was identified as a central focus, with proposals for structured train‑the‑trainer programmes, curated course content, standardised assessments, modernised labs and engagement of seasoned industry professionals as adjunct faculty.

The participants further proposed the creation of a national-level shared AI infrastructure. The triple helix model would be jointly supported by industry, the Government and academic institutions.

This would ensure equitable access to Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) compute, edge devices, software stacks and subscription-based platforms across colleges and universities, the statement noted.

—IANS

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