1 hour ago
3
ARTICLE AD BOX
3 min readNew DelhiFeb 12, 2026 11:48 AM IST
Ahead of the Education Ministry’s two-day Bharat Bodhan AI Conclave, Dharmendra Pradhan said the Centre of Excellence in AI for Education at IIT Madras, set up as ‘IIT Madras Bodhan AI Foundation’, is working on digital public infrastructure (DPI) for education. (screengrab)
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday that efforts will be made to integrate AI tools in teaching, from the pre-primary classes to higher education, from the next academic session.
Ahead of the Education Ministry’s two-day Bharat Bodhan AI Conclave, scheduled to begin Thursday, Pradhan said the Centre of Excellence in AI for Education at IIT Madras, set up as ‘IIT Madras Bodhan AI Foundation’, is working on digital public infrastructure (DPI) for education. The conclave is being held as a pre-AI Impact Summit event.
Pradhan said AI tools will be used for teacher capacity building. “New textbooks have been developed. Teachers need to be oriented towards the pedagogy and approach. There is a mechanism through the SCERTs and DIETs. To speed this up, BodhanAI will develop modules for teachers’ capacity building. This will be one application,” Pradhan said.
He was speaking after meeting representatives of start-ups working with AI in the education and skilling sector ahead of the conclave.
The conclave, with participation from academics, policymakers, start-ups, and representatives from the States, will initiate work on the Bharat EduAI Stack, which is designed to provide an architecture for innovators and institutions to build AI-related education solutions.
“We need to make India one of the world’s leading AI capacities…AI is already in the curriculum, and institutions are making courses. Some component or other of AI is already being taught. This is one aspect of knowledge which is already progressing. The other aspect is application, which is now our focus,” Pradhan said.
“The Prime Minister says that competency is more important than certificates and degrees. Competency-based outcomes are more important. The government has the Diksha and Swayam portals (for digital content). To make online content interactive, AI tools will be useful. We are contemplating how Diksha and Swayam can be AI-enabled,” he said.
Story continues below this ad
“We also think that in skilling, AI will play a crucial role. UG courses are four years now. There is a challenge here…there is a facility for internships and apprenticeships. But how can employability be enhanced? Here, AI tools can be a force multiplier,” Pradhan added.
V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “We will have a DPI. We will give certain APIs (application programming interface) to start-ups so that they can build their product on top of it, and deliver with some guaranteed accuracy.”
The Union Budget announced a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for education, which has been set up at IIT Madras. The centre will develop AI solutions for education.
English (US) ·