IIT Bombay and Columbia University, USA, signed and exchanged an MoU in the presence of Shri. Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister of Education, to establish a Center of AI for Manufacturing. The function, held at Bharat Mandapam, Delhi, was also graced by Dr. Sukanta Majumdar, Hon’ble Minister of State for Education; Dr. Vineet Joshi, Secretary, Higher Education; Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, School Education & Literacy and Mr. S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). 

The delegations were led by Prof. Shireesh Kedare, Director of IIT Bombay and Prof. Soulaymane Kachani, Senior Vice Provost of Columbia University. Leaders of this initiative, Prof. Vishal Misra, Vice Dean for Computing and AI at Columbia Engineering and Prof. Mani Bhushan, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay, were also present. 

The Ministry of Education has initiated four different AI centers so far. The "Columbia–IIT Bombay Center of AI for Manufacturing" is a joint research and translation center aimed at building robust, scalable and human-centric AI systems for real-world manufacturing. Several industry partners are in the process of joining the Center.