IIT Indore and Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) Bhopal have formally signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly establish an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning research centre that will be headquartered at MANIT’s Bhopal campus. The centre, to be named the Central India AI Innovation Hub, will focus on applied AI research in areas including precision agriculture, smart manufacturing, healthcare diagnostics, and regional language processing — with a specific focus on Hindi and Malwi dialects. Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan, who attended the MoU signing ceremony virtually, called the collaboration a model for inter-institutional partnership in India’s research ecosystem. “Central India is emerging as a powerhouse of technical talent and this centre will cement that position,” he said. MANIT Director Prof. Narendra Singh Raghuwanshi confirmed that the centre will host 30 research fellows in its first cohort and will collaborate with industry partners including TCS, Infosys, and several Bhopal-based tech startups. The centre is expected to be operational by the end of the year.
