From the launch of new centres of excellence to government initiatives and new AI courses, 2019 saw many interesting developments in the industry. As the year comes to an end, we bring to you a roundup of all the whereabouts of the industry in the last year. Here are some of the biggest developments:

January

India announces to build 20 interdisciplinary cyber-physical centres as announced by the BJP-led Union Government with an investment of over ₹3,600 crore. PM Modi said that these funds would be used for R&D, technology development, human resources and skills, innovation, startup ecosystem and strong industry and international collaborations.

Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions announced its first venture investment in India in Bengaluru-based startup SimYog Technologies incubated in IISc. IISc-based SimYog has raised ₹ 6.3 Cr in a funding round with participation from early-stage venture capital firm Ideaspring Capital. 

It was announced that Oracle is looking to launch its first India data centre later this year in India in Mumbai. The data centre will be looking at Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) workloads, and the company is also testing for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), along with other modalities before it is opened for the market.

Kerala inaugurated Integrated Startup Complex, India’s largest startup hub with an aim to provide adequate infrastructure for startup incubation and acceleration within the state. The eight-floor facility which is spread across 1.82 lakh sq ft area will house incubators for research and development purposes across various sectors. 

February

IIT Madras joined hands with Bosch to establish its centre for data science and artificial intelligence in the campus. The technology giant would be investing ₹20 crores over the next five years in the centre to address core challenges in the field. 

Microsoft India announced its plan to increase investments in the eight North-Eastern states of India. The company said that they will focus on the education sector, enhancing transportation and utilities and enable better citizen services in the North East by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and cloud technologies. 

Rolls Royce said that it will be mentoring and providing technical support to  Indian startup specialised in the field of advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, the blockchain, sensing through its acceleration hub, R2 Data Labs. It had also launched R2 Data Labs in 2017 to accelerate data innovation. 

May

Bihar may become the first state to set up East India’s first AI Centre of Excellence in Patna. Bihar Entrepreneurs Association (BEA) has decided to set up East India’s first  “Artificial Intelligence – Centre of Excellence” in Patna, a news report indicated. The blueprint has been finalised and the CoE will help BEA strive closer to their goal of building skills in emerging technologies and boost the startup ecosystem in Bihar.

IIT Kanpur soon plans to open a specialised AI research centre in collaboration with a reputed organisation. The centre will be responsible for doing research in the areas of IoT(Internet of things) and AI.

July

ByteDance, the parent company of popular video app TikTok announced setting up of a new data centre in India. The Chinese company will be one of the first social media companies to localise their data for India.

As a part of a new collaboration between the Ministry of Science & Technology, Taiwan, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan and the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, they have launched a joint research centre on artificial intelligence and machine learning at IIT Ropar.

August

Apptio Inc a software providing company announced the opening of their first-ever Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. With this new office, it will expand its workforce by 50% and cement its position as the market leader for fueling digital transformation. 

Clearwater Analytics announced that it will open a new office in Noida. The new site will be Clearwater’s second development centre and provide “follow-the-sun” servicing capabilities for the company’s operations teams. The India office is a strategic addition to current offices in New York, London, Edinburgh, and the global headquarters in Boise, Idaho, USA.

EgleView, an aerial imagery and computer vision analytics, announced the official opening of its new international office in Bengaluru. The company has plans to leverage India’s strong technical and entrepreneurial talent pool to fuel the company’s continued global expansion.

Microsoft Research India announced the launch of the centre for Societal impact through Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (SCAI). Part of the Microsoft Research (MSR) Lab in Bengaluru, this centre will focus on creating and nurturing projects that can have real-world and large-scale societal impact.

September 

Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship approved the proposal to set up IISs in Kanpur, Mumbai and Ahmedabad in January this year. The IISs are slated to provide new-age skills including factory automation, digital manufacturing and cybersecurity, along with education in artificial intelligence and machine learning, among others.

October 

PwC India is setting up its first IoT Lab and the Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence in Kolkata and plans to hire 1,200 people from engineering and data analytics background in the next year. It will be the first of their kind for PwC in India.

November 

Sony is reportedly set to open artificial intelligence labs in India in Bengaluru, in the coming year 2020. They may also hire Indian talent to build its network of strong local researchers. The Bangalore facility will be Sony’s seventh global R&D centre, after Japan, US and China.

December 

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) proposed an IoT OpenLab in Bengaluru. This IoT OpenLab CoE will be the second-of-its-kind in the world after Hong Kong, with the objective of creating a technology platform for enabling innovative startups to develop IoT-based applications, products, and solutions

Alltech, a worldwide innovator in animal nutrition, plans to set up an Analytical Services Laboratory in India. It will be their third lab outside the US for the Kentucky-headquartered organization and will be situated in Pune, where Alltech opened its organic trace mineral assembling plant in October 2018.

The University of Tokyo and SoftBank Corp announced an agreement to establish the Beyond AI Institute, a new research facility that will gather the world’s best minds and launch programs to develop businesses with research results.