Bengaluru: More than 3,100 engineering colleges in the country started BTech programmes related to artificial intelligence, said All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) chairman TG Sitharam. At his book release programme at S-Vyasa deemed-to-be-university in Kengeri on Monday, he said: “Around 3,670 institutions across India are offering AI, data science, and cyber security courses. There are 222 diploma courses, 3,100 undergraduate programmes, and 334 postgraduate programmes in this area. Even if 100 graduate per college, there will be a large number of students coming out. There will be no dearth of manpower,” he said.
AICTE announced that 2025 will be a year of AI and asked colleges to take steps to incorporate AI in their curriculum. More than 1,100 colleges responded to AICTE with the ideas they are going to implement, the chairman said.
Brushing aside concerns that the hype for computer science is impacting other streams, he said there are enough numbers in other streams as well. The problem, however, he said, is in the quality. “I don’t see any shortage of people. Quality is a problem. For this, we introduced new scholarships, like paying full fees for girls in core engineering programmes. The core engineering teachers are trained using a PG certification programme in emerging areas,” he said.
AICTE also requested the govt to give more scholarships in MTech, he said. “I am now worried about MTech because enrolment in postgraduate programmes has always been small. Because people are not taking it, we are trying to create new programmes like defence technology and quantum computing. We also recommended to the ministry to increase this fellowship,” he said.