PARLIAMENT QUESTION: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND INNOVATION CENTRES
PARLIAMENT QUESTION: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND INNOVATION CENTRES
The Government is supporting establishment of Science and Technology Parks and Innovation Centres focused on Artificial Intelligence (Al) and emerging technologies.
The Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India is implementing the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), with an outlay of Rs. 3,660.00 crore. Under this mission, a project titled “Bharat-Gen: A Suite of Generative AI Technologies for India” is being implemented with funding support of Rs 235.17 crore at the Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) Foundation for IOT and IOE, IIT Bombay. This project is a multimodal, multilingual Large Language Model initiative, focused on developing efficient and inclusive AI solutions in 22 Indian languages.
The DST, under Technology Translation and Innovation (TTI) Division, has also established a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at T-Hub Hyderabad, focused on providing infrastructural, mentoring and incubation support to startups in the field of AI and ML.
The Ministry of Education has established three Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in Artificial Intelligence, focusing on healthcare, agriculture, and sustainable cities at IIT Kanpur, IIT Ropar and IISc Bangalore at a total budget outlay of Rs 990 Cr. In the Union Budget 2025-26, the Government has also announced a Centre of Excellence in Al for Education with a financial outlay of Rs. 500 crores.
In other emerging technologies, under NM-ICPS of DST, 25 TIHshave been established in reputed academic institutions across India. Each TIH has been assigned a technology vertical in the areas of emerging technologies, such as Robotics, Internet of Things (loT) and Internet of Everything (IoE), Cybersecurity, Data Banks & Data Services, Data Analysis and FinTech etc.
The details of the TIHs supported under the NM-ICPS, along with their respective technology verticals, are given as under:
S. No.
Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs)
Host Institute (HI)
Technology Vertical (TV)
1
IIT Kharagpur AI4ICPS I-Hub Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
2
TIH Foundation for IOT and IOE
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Technologies for Internet of Things & Internet of Everything (Implementing the project titled BharatGen: A Suite of Generative AI Technologies for India)
3
IIIT-H Data I-Hub Foundation
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
Data Banks & Data Services, Data Analysis
4
I-HUB for Robotics and Autonomous Systems Innovation Foundation
Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru
Robotics & Autonomous Systems
5
IHUB NTIHAC Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Cyber Security and Cyber Security for Physical Infrastructure
6
IHUB Drishti Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur
Computer Vision, Augmented and virtual reality
7
Divyasampark IHUB Roorkee for Devices Materials and Technology Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Device Technology and Materials
8
IIT Patna Vishlesan I-hub Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Patna
Speech, Video & Text Analytics
9
IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Sensors, Networking, Actuator & controls
10
NMICPS Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation Foundation (TiHAN)
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad
Autonomous Navigation and Data Acquisition systems (UAV, RoVetc)
11
I-DAPT-HUB Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi
Data Analytics & Predictive Technologies
12
IIT Guwahati Technology Innovation and Development Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Technologies for under water exploration
13
IIT MandiIHub and HCI Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Mandi
Human Computer Interaction
14
I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC)
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Cobotics
15
IIT Palakkad Technology Ihub Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad
Intelligent Collaborative Systems
16
IIT Ropar Technology and Innovation Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Ropar
Technologies for Agriculture & Water
17
Technology Innovation in Exploration & Mining Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Dhanbad
Technologies for Mining
18
IIITB Comet Foundation
International Institute of Information Technology Bengaluru
Advanced Communication System
19
BITS BioCYTiH Foundation
Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani
Bio-Cyber Physical Systems
20
IDEAS- Institute of Data Engineering, Analytics and Science Foundation
Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata
Data Science, Big Data Analytics and Data curation etc
21
IITI Drishti CPS Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Indore
System Simulation, Modelling & Visualization
22
IHUB Anubhuti-IIITD Foundation
Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi
Cognitive Computing & Social Censing
23
I-Hub Quantum Technology Foundation
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune
Quantum Technologies
24
IIT Tirupati Navavishkar I-Hub Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati
Positioning and Precision Technologies
25
IIT Bhilai Innovation and Technology Foundation
Indian Institute of Technology Bhilai
Technologies for financial sector (Fintech)
Out of the above 25 TIHs, four have been upgraded to Technology Translation Research Parks (TTRPs), with an aim to significantly scale the translational research, commercialization and industry engagement. Details of the TTRPs are as follows:
S. No
Name of the TTRP
Focus Area of the TTRP
1
IITI Drishti CPS Foundation, IIT Indore
Digital Healthcare
2
I-HUB for Robotics and Autonomous Systems Innovation Foundation, IISc Bangalore
Robotics & AI Systems
3
IHUB NTIHAC Foundation, IIT Kanpur
Cybersecurity
4
Technology Innovation in Exploration & Mining Foundation, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad
Mining (Exploration to Beneficiation of Minerals)
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has established four Atal Incubation Centres namely AIC-BARC-ANUSHAKTI, AIC RRCAT PI-HUB Foundation, AIC-IGCAR-FAST Foundation and AIC-IPR Plasmatech Innovation Foundation focusing, which will focus on technology translation and commercialization of deeptech innovations to startups and industries.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has established a world-class Innovation Complex (CSIR-IC) at Mumbai, with fully equipped and ready-to-move incubation labs and business-development support to the start-ups, MSMEs, deep-tech companies, CSIR and other public-funded research institutions. Additionally, a technology incubation centre- Foundation for Aerospace Innovation, Research and Entrepreneurship (FAIRE) has been established at CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), Bengaluru by National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), in association with Foundation for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (FISE) to promote start-ups in the area of aerospace.
Under DST, NM-ICPS has received proposals from IISc Bangalore and IIIT Bangalore for establishment of two TIHs namely, I-HUB for Robotics and Autonomous Systems Innovation Foundation at IISc Bangalore and IIITB Comet Foundation, which have been supported with a funding of ₹114.25 crore and ₹107.89 crore respectively. Although not fully focused on AI, the technology verticals of the two TIHs have AI components therein.
Under the National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) program, DST has established Inclusive Technology Business Incubators (iTBI) across Karnataka to promote S&T-based entrepreneurship in the area of Artificial Intelligence and related technologies, one such iTBI namely BLDE Foundation for Innovation has been established at BLDE (Deemed to be University), Karnataka, with Medical Devices, Artificial Intelligence, Analytics and Machine learning in Healthcare, Digital Health-eHealth, mHealth, Regenerative Medicine as its thrust areas with funding support of Rs 1.95 crores.
The Government is making concerted efforts and has initiated several steps as detailed above to promote collaboration between academia, start-ups, and industry to accelerate Al research and application in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, governance under various missions/schemes such as DST’s NM-ICPS & NIDHI, CoEs of Ministry of Education, Dept of Atomic Energy, CSIR, etc.
This information was given by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, MoS PMO, MoS Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.