Union Education Minister launches Bodhan AI Centre of Excellence
MoU exchange between IIT Bombay and Columbia University to establish a Centre of AI for manufacturing at IIT Bombay
During the event, Pradhan launched the Bodhan AI Centre of Excellence. The Conclave marks a significant step in advancing the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across India’s education ecosystem. Senior officials including the Secretary, School Education & Literacy, Sanjay Kumar; Secretary, Higher Education (DoHE), Dr Vineet Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), S. Krishnan; Director, IIT Madras, Prof V Kamakoti; academic leaders, researchers, and founders from leading startups who use AI in Education, participated in the proceedings.
The Bharat Bodhan AI Conclave 2026 is envisioned as a national platform for landscape discovery, strategic alignment, and partnership building in AI-enabled education.
Its primary purpose is to:
- Enable landscape discovery and ecosystem mapping to identify gaps and opportunities
- Support strategic partnerships across government, academia, startups, and industry
- Mark the beginning of the development of the Bharat EduAI Stack, an open and interoperable architecture to build, integrate, and scale AI-powered learning solutions across India
The conclave will engage solutions across four priority verticals – AI for School Education, AI for Higher Education, AI for Skilling and Workforce Readiness, and AI Research and Deep Technology.
Speaking on the occasion, Dharmendra Pradhan said that the two-day conclave brings together academia, industry, policymakers, start-ups, innovators, scientific leadership and the skilling ecosystem to integrate AI in education at scale and develop the ‘Bharat EduAI Stack’. He noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call to make India AI-ready and has emphasised the need for developing and deploying ethical, responsible and inclusive AI.
Union Minister Pradhan underlined that India’s AI will be inclusive by design, interoperable by architecture and sovereign by capability. Stressing the importance of embedding AI in education to empower students and support teachers, he called upon all stakeholders to build scalable, responsible, ethical and India-centric sovereign AI models for transforming education and realising the goal of Viksit Bharat. He expressed confidence that the collective wisdom of the conclave would pave the way for enhancing India’s AI capacity, strengthening India’s leadership in AI, building a DPI in education and ensuring AI For All.
Sukanta Majumdar, in his address, said that as we move towards the India-AI Impact Summit 2026, let us commit to S.A.F.E. AI Secure, Accountable, Fair, and Empowering so that India shapes technology for inclusive progress.
An exhibition showcasing AI-driven innovations in school education, higher education, and skilling was also inaugurated, providing a platform for interaction between policymakers and innovators.
A series of key launches and partnerships were announced during the session, including:
- MoU exchange between IIT Bombay and Columbia University to establish a Centre of AI for manufacturing at IIT Bombay
- Launch of the IIM Lucknow AI Programme
- Institutional collaborations involving IIM Jammu and AIT Bangkok
- IIM Ranchi Initiative – Teaching with AI
The Conclave witnessed a special session on Bodhan.ai, AI Centre of Excellence for Education at IIT Madras. A detailed presentation was made on the initiative including the need for building an open Bharat EduAI Stack. Mr. Pratyush Kumar, CEO, Sarvam AI also addressed the gathering and discussed about the future of AI in education.
This was followed by two technical sessions:
Technical Session 1: School Education & Classroom Solutions
The session was moderated by Vibhu Mittal, CTO of Inflection Al. Key speakers in this session included Radhika Mathur, Policy Lead, Rocket Learning; Neeru Khosla, Executive Director, CK-12 Foundation; Swati Vasudevan, Country Director, Khan Academy; Pulkit Jain, Co-founder, Vedantu; Puneet Goyal, Co-founder, iDream Education; Sumit Mehta, CEO, LEAD Group; Ritesh Singh Chandel, CEO, Arivihan; Ramamoorthy G, Co-Founder & CEO, Learning Matters; and Ritesh Singh, Founder & CEO, Eckovation.
Technical Session 2: Teacher Capacity Building, FLN & Systemic Reform
The session was moderated by Prakash Kumar, CEO at Wadhwani Centre for Government Digital Transformation. Key speakers in this session included Jagadish Babu, COO, EkStep Foundation; Dr. Preeti Rao, Professor, IIT Bombay (TARA); Uddalak Datta, Senior Director, Language & Learning Foundation; Vinit Nair, Founder & Chairman, Sampark Foundation; Gokul Kumar, Senior Product Manager, Madhi Foundation; Vipul Shah, Global Head – Education & Skilling, TCS Foundation; and Nagarajan Pichumani, Project Director, Vidya Shakti.
These sessions brought together leading organisations and startups to present scalable AI-enabled solutions aimed at enhancing classroom learning, teacher support systems, foundational learning interventions, and governance frameworks.
