Aimed at empowering individuals as well as organizations to solve environmental challenges through the technology of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Microsoft has announced that it has chosen seven Indian grantees for “AI for Earth programme”.
The seven recipients of the programme will get access to Microsoft Azure Cloud and AI computing resources with in-depth education and technology training on these tools and an additional support as these projects mature.
As of now, India is third largest in terms of receiving AI for Earth grantees, only after the United States and Canada.
“From the Microsoft Research Lab in Bengaluru to the Digital India initiative at the corporate level, we have seen a focus on initiatives like wildlife conservation, water sustainability and agriculture for small-holder farmers, among others, which are of significant importance to a large population in a geography like India,” said Lucas Joppa, Chief Environmental Officer, Microsoft Corporation and Lead for Microsoft AI for Earth.
The programme was launched in July 2017 to focus areas of the five-year programme which are climate change, agriculture, water, and biodiversity.
In the agriculture category, Indian Institute of Technology and International Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT) was chosen for the AI for Earth programme.
In collaboration with the Technical University of Munich, IIT is preparing a low-cost tool to monitor plant health in resource-limited regions.
To enable sustainable agriculture production practices particularly in developing parts of the world, ICRISAT is utilizing AI, cognitive services and cloud computing to enable and enhance pest forecasting and prediction models and farm advisory services.
And to document and quantitatively assess the abundant habitats and rich biological resources in the North-East, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) of Bengaluru is developing an AI-enabled tool in the field of biodiversity.
Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi is trying to develop an intelligent tool to identify and locate monkeys living in human habitats in order to help researchers implement more effective population control.
To address the climate change issue, Symbiosis Institute of Technology of Pune is utilizing both smart meter and socio-economic data to develop and AI-enabled prototype for smart meter data analytics, thus resulting in the improvement of energy management for utilities and consumers.
India Institute of Science, Bangalore was selected in the field of water to develop a scalable solution by utilizing data analytics and machine learning under its current Eqwater project to ensure equitable water distribution in large cities of India.
Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune was selected to serve the water category in developing Smart Environment Information and Management System (SEIMANS) to monitor and predict water, soil, air and conditions for a variety of smart city applications.
“We congratulate the recipients and are excited by the potential for advances in AI and sustainability that will benefit India and the world,” said Keshav Dhakad, Group Head and Assistant General Counsel – CELA, Microsoft India.
AI for Earth has increased from 20 grantees to 147 in more than 40 countries in just a year, with USD 1.1 million of Azure Cloud credits awarded till now. If seen in a complete view, the programme is about USD 50 million with a 5-year commitment from Microsoft.
“I think what’s special about India is that it has a large workforce that has the technical skills to take advantage of the tools that we’re trying to put in people’s hands,” Joppa noted.
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