NEW DELHI: From replacing lecture-heavy teaching with real-world AI projects in the very first semester to sharply increasing hands-on learning and building shared national GPU infrastructure for colleges, the Centre is preparing a sweeping overhaul of India’s AI curriculum amid growing concerns that existing engineering courses are lagging behind rapid industry shifts in generative AI and advanced machine learning technologies.Union electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting of the AI Curriculum Taskforce, where government officials, industry representatives and academic stakeholders discussed a roadmap to redesign AI education across Indian institutions with stronger industry integration, faculty training and practical exposure.The move comes amid an aggressive push by the government to position India as a global AI talent and innovation hub while addressing industry concerns over the widening gap between classroom learning and deployable AI skills.According to the ministry, the taskforce conducted a baseline study of existing BTech computer science and allied curricula across Indian institutions in collaboration with industry experts and Nasscom. While the review found that AI-related content had expanded significantly in recent years, it flagged major shortcomings in pedagogy, infrastructure and practical exposure in emerging areas such as Generative AI, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) and foundational model development.One of the key recommendations discussed during the meeting was a shift towards “application-oriented pedagogy”, under which students would work on industry use-cases and AI solution engineering projects from the early stages of their programme instead of relying largely on classroom lectures.The proposed framework also recommends embedding AI courses directly into the formal academic credit system with a semester-wise rollout, alongside a substantial increase in practical learning exposure. Officials said the current practical component of around 25-30% could be raised to between 40% and 75% depending on the programme and specialisation.The consultation also proposed flexible multiple entry-exit pathways aligned with the National Education Policy framework, including certificates after one year, diplomas after two years and advanced diplomas after three years.Participants stressed that curriculum reform would require parallel investments in faculty readiness. Recommendations included structured train-the-trainer programmes, standardised assessment systems, curated teaching content and modernisation of laboratories in line with current industry tools and platforms.The taskforce also proposed creation of a national shared AI infrastructure model jointly supported by industry, government and academic institutions to provide equitable access to GPU compute capacity, edge devices, software stacks and subscription-based AI platforms across colleges and universities.Officials said discussions would now be taken forward with AICTE for phased integration of the revamped curriculum, including for existing batches in advanced semesters. A separate workstream is also being planned to expand AI literacy and applied AI learning for non-STEM disciplines.