ARTPARK hosts Innovation Summit 2022

The summit witnessed an exchange of ideas on topics such as how to create next-generation connectivity in rural areas, Health AI for Bharat, Connecting Bharat with Drones, using AI and technology to bridge the education and skills gap, and the importance of AI and robotics development and application

AI & Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) promoted by IISc and supported by AI foundry has organised the ARTPARK Innovation Summit 2022. The one-day hybrid event, themed “Connecting the Unconnected” building a smart, sustainable rural economy, took place at the historical Faculty Hall, IISc, Banglore. At the summit, participants, including Dr Ashwath Narayan C N, Minister (IT, BT & ST, Higher Education); Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog; Prashanth Prakash (Accel); Dr Chintan Vaishnav (Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission); Ram Sevak Sharma (CEO, NHA, ex Chairman TRAI) and several other like-minded innovation enthusiasts from industry, academia, and government, discussed the creation of next wave of job growth outside of metro cities in India by connecting the unconnected population of the country with frontier technologies like 5G, AI & Robotics.

The summit witnessed an exchange of ideas on topics such as how to create next-generation connectivity in rural areas, Health AI for Bharat, Connecting Bharat with Drones, using AI and technology to bridge the education and skills gap, and the importance of AI and robotics development and application.

In his inaugural note, Dr Narayan said, “How do we take the fruits of AI & Robotics technology to Bharat to create the next wave of jobs after the IT & BPO wave is a critical question. We have supported the creation of ARTPARK  and this massive initiative by them will help the country’s youth outside urban India not only access the next generation of digital work but also acquire the skills they need to thrive in an AI-driven future. It was a delightful experience to attend the summit, and Karnataka will take a leadership role to create the new economic growth model for Atmanirbhar Bharat.”

Dr Kumar who attended the summit virtually, said, “India has the potential to become a world leader by unlocking the full potential of its rural economy, futuristic technologies like 5G, AI & Robotics will help realise this at a much faster pace and create the next big wave of jobs. We are already working with ARTPARK under our NITI Atal Innovation Mission and supporting innovative startups which are solving the critical problem of bringing connectivity to rural areas and enabling inclusive healthcare and education.”

Dr S Chandrasekhar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India added, “Digital and physical connectivity innovations are critical to India’s growth and Atmanirbhar vision. By bringing together industry, academia, and government in an open innovation network, NM-ICPS mission by the Department of Science and Technology is attempting a novel way to fast track innovations critical and strategic to the future prosperity of India. ARTPARK Innovation Summit, organized by ARTPARK (Technology Innovation Hub at IISc) is a critical step ahead in this process.”

Speaking about the event, Umakant Soni, CEO, ARTPARK said, “We are delighted to close the first edition of ARTPARK Innovation Summit on a fruitful note. The AI-driven experience economy is going to result in $15.7 tn of new economic value as per PWC Research. In order to have India at the forefront of the AI & Robotics revolution, we need to start exploring how these technologies can create new jobs in rural India and create better access to next-generation healthcare and education for the unconnected. The summit’s goal was to help people understand that India doesn’t require unlivable megacities; instead, it needs smart clusters that are more sustainable in nature, which can leverage the fruits of an AI-driven experience economy. And for this, we need to solve this ‘connecting the unconnected’ issue. At ARTPARK, we are harnessing the power of AI and Robotics to reshape every sphere of human endeavour: especially next-generation mobility, education, employment, and the creation of smart, sustainable villages.”

ARTPARK Innovation Lab was also inaugurated at IISc Campus by Dr Narayan. The lab will be used by ARTPARK to develop critical pieces of technology which are needed to power Atmanirbhar Bharat.