Microsoft Selects 7 Grantees from India for 'AI for Earth' Project

Microsoft has announced that it has selected seven Indian grantees for its $50 million "AI for Earth" programme aimed at empowering people and organisations to solve ecology challenges through the power of Bogus Intelligence (AI).

The seven recipients will receive access to Microsoft Azure Deject and AI calculating resource, in-depth didactics and technology preparation on these tools and boosted back up as their projects mature.

Republic of india now has the third largest number of "AI for World" grantees, later on 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 wild animals conservation, water sustainability and agriculture for modest-holder farmers, among others, which are of significant importance to a large population in a geography like Bharat," said Lucas Joppa, Main Environmental Officer, Microsoft Corporation and Lead for Microsoft AI for Globe.

Launched in July 2017, the focus areas of the five-year programme are climate change, agronomics, biodiversity and water.

The "AI for World" programme has chosen Indian Institute of Engineering science and International Crops Research Found for the Semi-Arid Torrid zone (ICRISAT), Hyderabad in the agriculture category.

IIT, together with the Technical University of Munich, is designing a low-cost tool for monitoring plant health in resource-limited regions.

ICRISAT is using AI, cognitive services and cloud computing to enhance pest forecasting and prediction models and subcontract advisory services to enable sustainable agriculture product in developing parts of the earth.

In the field of biodiversity, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru is developing an AI-enabled tool to document and quantitatively assess the abundant habitats and rich biological resources in the North-East.

Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi is working on an intelligent tool for identifying and locating monkeys in homo habitats, helping researchers implement more effective population control.

In the field of climate change, Symbiosis Found of Technology, Pune is using both smart meter and socio-economical data to develop an AI-enabled prototype for smart meter data analytics, thus helping meliorate energy management for utilities and consumers.

Selected in the field of water, Bharat Institute of Science, Bangalore is developing a scalable solution using data analytics and auto learning under its Eqwater projection to ensure equitable water distribution in India's large cities.

Also selected in the h2o category, Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune is developing Smart Environment Information and Management System (SEIMANS) to monitor and predict water, air and soil conditions for a variety of smart city applications.

"Nosotros congratulate the recipients and are excited past the potential for advances in AI and sustainability that will benefit Republic of india and the earth," said Keshav Dhakad, Group Head and Assistant General Counsel – CELA, Microsoft Bharat.

In nearly a year, "AI for Earth" has grown from 20 grantees to 147 in more than 40 countries, with $one.1 one thousand thousand of Azure Cloud credits awarded till date.

"I call up what'due south special virtually Republic of india is that it has a large workforce that has the technical skills to take advantage of the tools that nosotros're trying to put in people's hands," Joppa noted.