Parliament Question: Establishment of Centre of Excellence in AI for Education

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 221 ANSWERED ON- 20/07/2026 Establishment of Centre of Excellence in AI for Education 221. Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) the details of current operational status, organizational roadmap and implementation timeline for the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Education; (b) the location and selection criteria for setting up the five designated National Centres of Excellence for Skilling in AI, robotics, and cybersecurity; (c) the allocation of funds and resources out of the sanctioned corpus to integrate AI- driven personalized learning platforms and adaptive curricula within Government schools, State/UT-wise particularly in Bihar; and (d) the measures taken to train educators in AI-assisted pedagogy to align with the technology integration objectives of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR) (a) The Government of India announced the establishment of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Education as part of the vision to "Make AI in India and Make AI work for India" for a period of 5 years from 2025-26 to 2029-30 with a total budget outlay of Rs. 500 Cr. The Ministry of Education has established the AI-CoE for Education at IIT Madras. The AI-CoE for Education is designed to offer AI enabled tools for learners across the country in alignment with the vision of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 to integrate technology in education ecosystem. (b) The five National Centres of Excellence (NCoEs) for skilling that were announced in the Budget 2025-26, have been approved as a part of the Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability through Upgraded ITIs (PM-SETU) scheme. Under the scheme, five National Centres of Excellence for Skilling are envisaged in the National Skill Training Institutes (NSTI) located at Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kanpur, and Ludhiana with an aim to enhance the overall quality and relevance of vocational training in the country. These NSTIs were selected based on the parameters likeland area of the institute, trade diversity, existing sitting capacity, scope for expansion and availability of faculty. (c) Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) is a platform for providing quality e-content for school education along with QR coded Energised Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades. DIKSHA supports AI enabled personalised adaptive learning. Overall, 579.41 crore learning sessions for 2.29 crore users have been completed on DIKSHA by students, teachers and other stakeholders. Further, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), in collaboration with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), has developed resources for computational thinking and AI Curriculum for both teachers and students from grade 3 to 8. (d) To develop the capacity of teachers in leveraging technology, focused efforts have been made by NCERT in organising training activities on AI, covering more than 96,000 beneficiaries though these programs. Similarly, CBSE organises capacity building programme to sensitise teachers to the application of AI tools in teaching, learning, and assessment, as well as their relevance in educational management and administration. In last 03 years 1234 programmes have been conducted, benefitting 64775 teachers of CBSE affiliated schools. Additionally, the Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Programme (MMTTP) is a capacity-building initiative of the Ministry of Education, aimed at faculty members in higher education institutions. Under MMTTP, the Capacity Building Programme on Artificial Intelligence (CBAI) has been introduced for faculty members. The programme aims to modernise pedagogical practices and support the integration of emerging technologies within the higher education ecosystem. In addition to CBAI, MMTTP offers a range of Short-Term Programmes (STPs) and Refresher Courses (RCs) including on E-Content Development, AI and Online Pedagogy. More than 100 such programmes have been conducted benefiting more than 13000 participants across these two initiatives. *****