An AI & Robotics Technologies Park (ARTPARK) set up in Bengaluru will promote technology innovations in AI (Artificial Intelligence)& Robotics, leading to societal impact by executing ambitious mission mode R&D projects in healthcare, education, mobility, infrastructure, agriculture, retail, and cyber-security focusing on problems unique to India.

ARTPARK is a unique not-for-profit foundation established by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, with support from AI Foundry in a public-private model. With seed funding of Rs. 170 Cr ($22mn) from the Department of Science & Technology(DST), Govt. of India, under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), it will bring about a collaborative consortium of partners from industry, academia, and government bodies. This will lead to cutting-edge innovations in new technologies, standards, products, services, and intellectual properties.

“The National Mission ICPS with its 25 Hubs has a unique architecture that envisages a strong collaboration and co-ownership among the triple helix of industry, academia, and government with full flexibility. Generous additional support of the Government of Karnataka to the ARTPARK Hub brings extraordinary value in increasing its effectiveness, reach and use. It also sets a template of center-state partnership in the frontier areas of technology– a theme which will receive focus in the soon-to-be-released Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy 2020”, said Professor Ashutosh Sharma, DST Secretary at the launch of the ARTPARK recently.

“Indian academia has been carrying out cutting-edge technology research in various domains. However, we have had systemic issues in moving the results of this research from university laboratories into the outside world. ARTPARK would go a long way in establishing a template for addressing this need,” Prof. Govindan Rangarajan, Director of IISc, pointed out.

“These moonshots will not only enable India but also build technology solutions for the 6 bn people in the developing world,” said Umakant Soni, Co-founder & CEO,

ARTPARK will develop AI and robotics facilities to support technology innovations and capacity building through advanced skills training of students and professionals in these areas. Some of these facilities will be critical enablers for new technologies, products, and services. It will develop DataSetu, which will enable confidentiality and privacy-preserving frameworks to share data, run analytics, spur the data-sharing ecosystem, and create a data marketplace, boosting AI applications and solutions.

One such service will be BhashaSetu, which enables real-time indicator language translation, both speech-to-speech and speech-to-text. This will further unlock the country’s economic potential, enabling all Indian citizens to participate in economic progress equitably, regardless of their language.

Prof. Bharadwaj Amrutur, Research Head & Director ARTPARK, explained how ARTPARK was a natural evolution of the Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems, interdisciplinary research, and academic centre at IISc, with funding from the Bosch group of companies.  

Vishal Dhupar, MD, NVIDIA South Asia, spoke about the collaborations between NVIDIA and ARTPARK to “enable technology to solve humanity’s grand challenges”. 

Robin Sukhia, Secretary-General and President of the Sweden India Business Council, pointed out how the not-for-profit organization will enable international co-creation at a higher and deeper level to help solve today’s and tomorrow’s challenges uniquely using technology.

ARTPARK, in collaboration with AI Foundry, will run a novel ARTPARK Venture Studio that will mentor technopreneurs who will take the outputs of the mission mode projects to launch new startups.

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Science & Technology
Date: November 29, 2020