IndiaAI, Meta to establish Center for Generative AI at IIT Jodhpur; YuvAI for young entrepreneurs

New Delhi: IndiaAI and Meta have announced to set up Center for Excellence for Generative AI. Named `Shrijan', it will be established at IIT Jodhpur.

They have also launched the YuvAI initiative in collaboration with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

This partnership aims to foster open-source AI innovation in India, focusing on empowering the next generation of AI developers, innovators, and entrepreneurs.

What is Shrijan?

Shrijan, a Center of Excellence (CoE) for Generative AI, will train and support young developers across India to deploy open-source large language models (LLMs) and address local challenges through hackathons. It will introduce foundational LLM knowledge through workshops for colleges, data labs, and ITIs, and assist in forming student-led startups experimenting with open-source AI models.

This initiative aligns with India’s vision to become a $5 trillion economy by advancing the country’s AI ecosystem, focusing on key areas like healthcare, education, agriculture, and smart cities.

Highlighting the importance of this initiative, S. Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), noted the impact of this collaboration on skill development and open-source AI advancement in India. Additional Secretary Abhishek Singh echoed this sentiment, emphasizing how partnerships like these bridge the AI talent gap and empower youth to lead the global AI industry.

Meta has committed Rs 750 lakh to support this initiative, which will be used to drive generative AI research at IIT Jodhpur’s Shrijan, with annual progress monitored by MeitY and Meta. The research center will connect with key academic and healthcare institutions, such as Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, PGI Chandigarh, AIIMS Jodhpur, and IHBAS Delhi, to focus on national issues in healthcare, mobility, and education.

Key Objectives:

The key objective of IIT Jodhpur’s Centre of Excellence, Srijan is to foster an indigenous research ecosystem in the country. It aims to nurture 1 lakh youth developers and entrepreneurs in AI skills over the next 3 years.

The idea is to remain future-ready in our Development of innovative Indigenous AI solutions in key areas like healthcare, education, agriculture, smart cities, smart mobility, sustainability, and financial and social inclusion. IIT Jodhpur COE Srijan will collaborate with academic, government & industry stakeholders both national & global to advance GenAI research and technology. This includes Open science innovation, development, and transfer technology solutions, Education & capacity building besides Policy advisory and governance.

Training young developers:

In parallel, the YuvAI initiative targets capacity building by training 100,000 young developers in generative AI skills through open-source LLMs. The program includes a Gen AI Resource Hub with courses, open datasets, and a Young Developers Course designed by Meta. It will also host Unleash LLM Hackathons for students to develop real-world AI solutions, offering mentorship, seed grants, and market support for the best ideas. Additionally, the AI Innovation Accelerator will support 10 student-led startups working on open-source AI projects through incubation and visibility.

IIT Jodhpur’s Professor Mayank Vatsa described Shrijan as a major center for AI research in India, emphasizing its alignment with the IndiaAI mission and its commitment to ethical AI development. AICTE Chairman Prof. T.G. Sitharam underscored the significance of these initiatives in realizing India’s AI potential by uniting academia, industry, and government.

These initiatives build on Meta's past collaborations with IndiaAI and the Ministry of Education to promote AI and emerging technologies, reflecting a shared vision to cultivate an innovative AI ecosystem in India.