Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence

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Wadhwani AI
Formation2018;7 years ago (2018)
Founders Romesh Wadhwani, Sunil Wadhwani
Purpose Artificial intelligence for Social Impact
Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Area served
India
Key people
Sameer Garde(CEO) [1]
P. Anandan (ex-CEO)
Website Wadhwani AI

Wadhwani AI, based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, is an independent, non-profit institute. Founded in 2018, it is dedicated to developing Artificial intelligence solutions for social good. Their mission is to build AI-based innovations and solutions for underserved communities in developing countries, for a wide range of domains including agriculture, education, financial inclusion, healthcare, and infrastructure. [2]

Contents

History and funding

The institute was founded with a $30 million philanthropic effort by the Wadhwani brothers, Romesh Wadhwani and Sunil Wadhwani. [3] The institute was inaugurated and dedicated to the nation by Narendra Modi, the 14th Prime Minister of India. [4]

In 2019, the institute received a $2 million grant from Google.org to create technologies to help reduce crop losses in cotton farming, through integrated pest management. [5] The United States Agency for International Development awarded $2 million to the institute in 2020 to develop tools, using mathematical modeling techniques and digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to forecast COVID-19 disease patterns, estimate resources needed, and plan interventions. [6]

Collaboration

With assistance from Google, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare and the Wadhwani AI developed Krishi 24/7, the first AI-powered automated agricultural news monitoring and analysis tool. Through better decision-making, Krishi 24/7 will support the identification of valuable news, provide timely notifications, and respond quickly to safeguard farmers' interests and advance sustainable agricultural growth. The application converts news articles into English after scanning them in several languages. It ensures that the ministry is informed in a timely manner about pertinent occurrences that are published online by extracting key information from news items, including the headline, crop name, event type, date, location, severity, summary, and source link. The National Center for Disease Control has effectively implemented a comparable automated surveillance and analysis tool for disease outbreaks. [7]

References

  1. "Cisco India's Garde to join non-profit Wadhwani AI as CEO". Outlook. Press Trust of India. 14 June 2021. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  2. "Wadhwani AI". Wadhwani AI. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  3. "A New Initiative in India to Help Shape AI for the Benefit of Everyone". Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly. 23 February 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  4. "Make Artificial Intelligence in India, Make Artificial Intelligence Work for India: PM Modi". www.narendramodi.in. 18 February 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  5. "We are a Google AI Impact grantee". Wadhwani AI. 7 May 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  6. "United States Provides $5 Million to Support Vulnerable Groups Impacted by COVID-19 | Press Release | India". USAID . 20 October 2020. Archived from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  7. "Krishi 24/7, the first-ever AI-powered solution for automated agricultural news monitoring and analysis". Press Information Bureau . Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India. 6 November 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2025.