The Indian Institute of Technology – Banaras Hindu University – IITBHU and Amazon Internet Services Private Limited (AISPL) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop cloud ready job skills by providing access to the AWS Educate program and to help establish a Cloud Research Lab on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). The Cloud Research Lab will provide students with opportunities to use AWS Cloud technology to pursue research initiatives that focus on AI and ML innovation for India.

According to an Accenture report titled, ‘Rewire for Growth’, AI has the potential to add nearly $1 trillion to India’s economy by 2035. India, as the fastest growing economy and with the second largest population in the world, has a significant stake in the AI revolution which needs to be implemented and encouraged in the areas of health, education, environment, infrastructure, cyber security and various other sectors. AWS Educate is a global program that provides a robust set of learning content, resources, and AWS Promotional Credits for students and educators to gain hands on experience with AWS Cloud services. Students and educators gain access to instructor-led classes, on demand training, self-paced labs, as well as ongoing technical assistance and support. Delivering home grown pioneering technological AI solutions, adapting, innovating, and simultaneously building the foundational R&D capabilities will ensure India’s sustainability in #AI4India.

According to Professor Rajeev Sangal, Director, IIT-BHU, “This MoU agreement helps our students develop technical proficiency with AWS Cloud skills and its advanced technologies in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning before they graduate”.