AI gets to Indian school curriculum; Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, NASSCOM make it possible

NITI Aayog, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) in collaboration with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) have all come together to launch an Artificial Intelligence-based Module for Indian school students.

The AI-Base Module has been introduced with an objective for students to leverage the full potential of AIM’s Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) and further empowers them to innovate and create valuable solutions benefiting societies at large. The module contains activities, videos, and experiments that enable students to work through and learn the various concepts of AI.

The AI Base Module was introduced to the ATL students on February 27th. It was also known that an AI Step-up Module is under development, which will be the next step, that builds on the base module.

The hands-on AI module has been designed considering academic, co-scholastic and other ATL programs at school and is formulated to encourage young students to contribute to the journey of nation-building. The module will be a catalyst for the youth to explore, ideate and learn the latest technologies and build a generation of innovators at the grassroots level.

Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog believes that India can add 1.3% to its GDP on an annual basis through the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence. He says that Indians can find solutions to the challenges of a shared connected zero-emission world, improving learning outcomes, diseases like tuberculosis, cancer, etc. "If we are able to find solutions to these challenges for the 1.3 billion people of India, we can find solutions for the 7.5 billion people of the world too,” he said.

He further added that this AI module is so critical, in the sense that it will start teaching school-going children from their very young age thereby making Indians a major player in AI, like it has been done in the past for robots, 3D printing, IoT. “This is path-breaking, it combines playing and academics, and our job is to make things very interesting. We want to make artificial intelligence a great fun so that children can enjoy it, they can evolve and learn and take India forward.”

Technology innovation over the last decade was breathtakingly fast as industries got intertwined with emerging technologies like never before. It has been estimated that by 2030, the global market in AI is likely to be in the range of 15 to 15.5 trillion dollars, out of which India’s share will be close to a trillion.

Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, R Ramanan said that AI is going to be an integral part of the new 21st century innovations and we are proud to introduce the Learn-It-Yourself module in all our 5000 Atal Tinkering Labs with over 2.5 million students having access to it. “This is the first-ever industry-government academia initiative on such a scale to keep the school students abreast of latest technologies.”

Meanwhile, for India to lead and remain relevant in this new ‘tech-driven decade’, especially in emerging technologies like AI, and the ubiquity of AI in society, it is critical for the government and academia to collaborate and introduce AI learning at schools and prepare young minds for the AI-led Digital future.

Speaking on the collaboration, Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, said, “AI has become a strategic lever for economic growth across nations and will continue to be one of the most crucial technologies of the future. Given its impact, it is an embracing step taken by NITI Aayog to introduce the resources for students to learn AI. This will create the right foundations for students, especially the K-12 segment, to onboard onto future technologies and prepare them fully for the digital and AI era. The partnership is a crucial step in building citizens and a workforce that is aware of AI and can work with AI.”