The State capital will be made Kerala’s artificial intelligence hub, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said. Various projects were being formulated under the leadership of higher education institutions and the Kerala Startup Mission towards this end, he said.
He was inaugurating a project for putting in place 9,000 robotic kits in 2,000 high schools in the public sector through their Little KITEs units, here on Thursday.
The Chief Minister said the government had drawn up a policy for promoting start-ups. However, an effective workforce was needed to realise it. The government was implementing a number of schemes to link the higher education sector with the industry to achieve this objective. Interventions, right from the school-level, were also needed. This was what prompted the formulation of the project to equip schools with robotic kits.
The project would help children keep pace with the changing world by enhancing their technical knowledge. They would get opportunities to become familiar with novel technologies and gain practical knowledge, he said.
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Teachers would be provided special training to implement the robotics kits project. As many as 60,000 students of the Little KITEs IT clubs would be trained under the leadership of these teachers. They, in turn, would train other students. In all, 12 lakh students would be provided the training, the Chief Minister said.
Minister for Finance K.N. Balagopal who was the chief guest, said the idea of a new Kerala involved it becoming the hub of knowledge in the world. Technology was helping realise many things that were considered impossible once.
Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty presided over the function. General Education Principal Secretary A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, Director of General Education Jeevan Babu, and KITE Chief Executive Officer Anvar Sadath K. were present.
