Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Dec 16: Strengthening India’s growing artificial intelligence ecosystem, Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, on Tuesday announced $8 million in funding for four government-backed AI Centres of Excellence spanning health, agriculture, education and sustainable cities. The initiative aligns with India’s broader vision of “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India.”
The Centres of Excellence include TANUH at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, which will focus on scalable AI solutions for the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases, and the Airawat Research Foundation at IIT Kanpur, dedicated to advancing AI-led innovations in urban governance. The AI Centre of Excellence for Education at IIT Madras will work on improving learning and teaching outcomes through technology-driven solutions, while ANNAM.AI at IIT Ropar will develop data-centric tools to enhance agricultural productivity and farmer welfare.
In a further boost to India’s linguistic AI research, Google announced an additional $2 million founding grant to establish the Indic Language Technologies Research Hub at IIT Bombay. The hub, created in memory of Professor Pushpak Bhattacharyya—a leading figure in Indic language technologies and a former Visiting Researcher at Google DeepMind—will focus on ensuring that advances in global AI meaningfully support India’s diverse languages.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said India is treating artificial intelligence as a long-term strategic national capability rather than a passing technological trend. He noted that the four Centres of Excellence are envisioned as part of a coordinated national research mission, combining foundational research, responsible AI development and real-world applications that serve public needs and contribute to the goal of Viksit Bharat 2047. He added that partnerships with industry, alongside public investment, are critical to building a globally competitive AI ecosystem.
At Google’s “Lab to Impact” dialogue, held in support of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, the company also committed $400,000 to aid the development of India’s Health Foundation AI model using MedGemma, Google’s specialised healthcare-focused AI system. As an initial step, Ajna Lens will collaborate with experts from AIIMS to create models tailored to Indian requirements in areas such as dermatology and outpatient triaging. These models will become part of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure and be made accessible to the wider ecosystem.
Google is also partnering with the National Health Authority to deploy advanced AI solutions that convert vast volumes of unstructured medical data—such as doctors’ notes and clinical records—into the globally recognised, machine-readable FHIR standard, enabling better interoperability and healthcare outcomes.
Highlighting Google’s broader commitment, Dr Manish Gupta, Senior Research Director at Google DeepMind, said the company’s end-to-end approach—from foundational research to large-scale deployment—is helping India build leadership in AI, with innovations developed in Indian labs poised to benefit users worldwide.