The triple helix of industry, academia and government sets a template of partnership in the frontier areas of technology-- a theme which will receive focus in the soon to be released STIP2020: Professor Ashutosh Sharma, DST Secretary

Some of these facilities will be key enablers for whole new sets of technologies, products and services

One such service will be BhashaSetu - that will enable real-time Indic language translation, both of speech to speech and speech to text Posted On: 29 NOV 2020 5:46PM by PIB Delhi

An AI & Robotics Technologies Park (ARTPARK) set up in Bengaluru will promote technology innovations in AI (Artificial Intelligence)& Robotics leading to societal impact by executing ambitious mission mode R&D projects in healthcare, education, mobility, infrastructure, agriculture, retail and cyber-security focusing on problems unique to India.

ARTPARK, is a unique not-for-profit foundation established by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru with support from AI Foundry in a public-private model. With seed funding of Rs. 170 Cr ($22mn) from Department of Science & Technology(DST), Govt. of India, under the National Mission on Inter-disciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), it will bring about collaborative consortium of partners from industry, academia and government bodies. This will lead to cutting edge innovations in terms of new technologies, standards, products, services and intellectual properties.

"The National Mission ICPS with its 25 Hubs has a unique architecture that envisages a strong collaboration and co-ownership among the triple helix of industry, academia and government with full flexibility. Generous additional support of the Government of Karnataka to the ARTPARK Hub brings extraordinary value in increasing its effectiveness, reach and use. It also sets a template of centre-state partnership in the frontier areas of technology-- a theme which will receive focus in the soon to be released Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020", said Professor Ashutosh Sharma, DST Secretary at the launch of the ARTPARK recently.

"Indian academia has been carrying out cutting edge technology research in various domains. However, we have had systemic issues in moving the results of this research from university laboratories into the outside world. ARTPARK would go a long way in establishing a template for addressing this need," Prof. Govindan Rangarajan, Director IISc pointed out.

"These moonshots will not only enable India but also build technology solutions for the 6 bn people in the developing world," Umakant Soni, Co-founder & CEO noted.

ARTPARK will develop AI & Robotics facilities to support technology innovations as well as capacity building through advanced skills training of students and professionals in these areas. Some of these facilities will be key enablers for whole new sets of technologies, products and services. It will develop DataSetu - that will enable confidentiality and privacy-preserving framework to share data and run analytics spurring the data-sharing ecosystem and create a data marketplace, boosting AI applications and solutions.

One such service will be BhashaSetu - that will enable real-time Indic language translation, both of speech to speech and speech to text. This will further unlock the economic potential of the country, and enable all Indian citizens to equitably participate in the economic progress, regardless of their language.

Prof. Bharadwaj Amrutur, Research Head & Director ARTPARK explained how ARTPARK was a natural evolution of the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber Physical Systems, an interdisciplinary research and academic centre at IISc, with funding from the Bosch group of companies.

Vishal Dhupar, MD, NVIDIA South Asia, spoke about the collaborations between NVIDIA and ARTPARK to “enable technology to solve humanity's grand challenges".

Robin Sukhia, Secretary-General and President of the Sweden India Business Council pointed out how the not-for-profit organisation will enable international co-creation at a higher and deeper level to help solve today’s and tomorrow’s challenges using technology in a unique way.

ARTPARK, in collaboration with AI foundry, will run a novel ARTPARK Venture Studio that will mentor technopreneurs who will take the outputs of the mission mode projects to launch new startups.

A critical section Dighawara-Bandikui of railway route between Ajmer to Delhi has been electrified.

A key step towards making NCR region free from Railways diesel engines. This will contribute to make cleaner and greener environment in the National Capital Region.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, inaugurated newly electrified Dhigawara-Bandikui section of North Western Railway and flagged off first train on this newly electrified route

Indian Railways has set a target to complete Electrification of its Broad gauge network by December 2023.

More than 66% of Broad gauge route has already electrified. With 18065 km of electrification, Railways record an astonishing 371 % increase in electrification during 2014-20 period as compared to 2009-2014.

Target to complete 28143 km of Railway Track electrification by December 2023.

41500 km already electrified.

More than 66% tracks in Railways already electrified.

The Government of India (GOI) has announced the third stimulus package of Rs. 900 Crore for the Mission COVID Suraksha- The Indian COVID-19 Vaccine Development Mission. This grant will be provided to the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for Research & Development of Indian COVID-19 vaccines.

The COVID-19 Vaccine development Mission with end-to-end focus from preclinical development through clinical development and manufacturing and regulatory facilitation for deployment, would consolidate all available and funded resources towards an accelerated product development. This will help accelerate development of approx. 5-6 vaccine candidates and ensure that these are brought closer to licensure and introduction in market for consideration of regulatory authorities for introduction in public health systems, to combat further spread of COVID infection.

The important objectives of the fund will be accelerating pre-clinical& clinical development; licensure of COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are currently in clinical stages or ready to enter clinical stage of development, establishing clinical trial sites, and strengthening the existing immunoassay laboratories, central laboratories and suitable facilities for animal studies, production facilities and other testing facilities to support COVID-19 vaccine development.

The other important objective will be supporting development of common harmonized protocols, trainings, data management systems, regulatory submissions, internal and external quality management systems and accreditations. Capabilities for process development, cell line development and manufacturing of GMP batches for animal toxicology studies and clinical trials will also be supported under the Mission. A key element will be development of suitable Target Product Profile so that vaccines being introduced through the mission have preferred characteristics applicable for India.

Led by Department of Biotechnology and implemented by a dedicated Mission Implementation Unit at Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC),the existing activities under National Bio Pharma Mission (NBM) and Ind-CEPI Mission will provide complementary strengths to this Mission.

Phase-I of the COVID Suraksha Mission has been allotted Rs.900 Crore for a period of 12 months.

A total of 10 vaccine candidates have been supported by Department of Biotechnology so far at both academia and industry and as on date, 5 vaccine candidates are in human trials including the Russian Vaccine Sputnik-V with at least 3 more in advanced stages of preclinical to enter human trials shortly.