New Delhi, 19 June 2018: The Indian Institute of Technology – Banaras Hindu University -IIT-BHU and Amazon Internet Services Private Limited (AISPL) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop cloud-ready job skills by providing access to the AWS Educate program and to help establish a Cloud Research Lab on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). The Cloud Research Lab will provide students with opportunities to use AWS Cloud technology to pursue research initiatives that focus on AI and ML innovation for India. The MoU was signed in the presence of Union Human Resources Development Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi today.
Speaking on this occasion, Shri Javadekar said that this is very important occasion that Amazon is joining hands with IIT-BHU for giving essential free services in Cloud Computing, Data-sets and many other new technologies, which will empower our students and faculties to do better and focused research. He said that Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi is always pushing hard for new research and innovation efforts. The Prime Minister rightly believes that unless we innovate, we don’t attain the sustainable prosperity and to attain the sustainable prosperity, our research and innovations have to go to the next level, the Minister added. Shri Javadekar said that today’s collaboration is a new milestone and a major step in this direction.
The Minister said that our nanotechnology lab in IISC is another commendable feature. The HRD Minister said that this will save cost and time as good research by students will also benefit all sections of the society including farmers and others. He said that IIT- BHU, which is the part of BHU family with the existence of more than 100 years, is now using the cutting edge technology which will also enrich the research of other Indian Universities.
Shri Javadekar said that with the launch of Higher Education Finance Agency- HEFA, huge budget from the additional resources, Prime Minister Research Fellowship and programs like IMPRINT scheme, Uchchtar Aviskar Yojana, the research and innovation in India will get new dimension.
According to an Accenture report titled, “Rewire for Growth”, AI has the potential to add nearly $1 trillion to India’s economy by 2035. India, as the fastest growing economy and with the second largest population in the world, has a significant stake in the AI revolution which needs to be implemented and encouraged in the areas of health, education, environment, infrastructure, cyber security and various other sectors. Delivering home-grown pioneering technological AI solutions, adapting, innovating, and simultaneously building the foundational R&D capabilities will ensure India’s sustainability in #AI4India.
Under the MoU agreement, IIT-BHU gains access to the resources in AWS Educate program and curriculum designed for higher education institutions to incorporate in their courses. This collaboration will help accelerate cloud-related technical expertise for students and boost their readiness as they prepare to undertake the industry-recognized Certification.
AWS Educate is a global program that provides a robust set of learning content, resources, and AWS Promotional Credits for students and educators to gain hands-on experience with AWS Cloud services. Students and educators gain access to instructor-led classes, on-demand training, self-paced labs, as well as ongoing technical assistance and support.
According to Professor Rajeev Sangal, Director, IIT-BHU- this MoU agreement helps our students develop technical proficiency with AWS Cloud skills and its advanced technologies in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning before they graduate
