The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) launched the second edition of its flagship project, AICTE-VAANI, on Wednesday, March 19. This project aims to promote Indian languages in technical education.
This year, the technical education regulator will give institutions Rs 4 crore to organise 200 conferences, seminars, and workshops on burgeoning technological disciplines in 22 different languages.
According to Prof TG Sitharam, Chairperson of AICTE, the VAANI (Vibrant Advocacy for Advancement and Nurturing of Indian Languages) scheme aims to build a strong knowledge foundation in regional languages in order to make the most recent technical breakthroughs available in local languages, Business Standard reports.
“The scheme will encourage the publication of research papers in regional languages. The initiative will foster greater collaboration between academic institutions and industries,” he added.
According to AICTE Vice-Chairman Dr Abhay Jere, the primary goal is to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills regardless of the language spoken. He also proposes establishing a comprehensive repository of all conferences for future reference and research needs.
AICTE-VAANI 2025 would provide financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh for each conference, reaching Rs 4 crore per year, to hold 200 conferences.
The AICTE requires that the events last two to three days and be held in 22 regional languages, including Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
Conferences, seminars, and workshops should be held in 16 growing technical disciplines, including quantum technology, space and defence, hydrogen energy, artificial intelligence (AI) and data science, agrotech, food processing, and cybersecurity.
The AICTE-VAANI 2025 event aims to promote Indian languages in technical education and foster collaboration between academic institutions and industry. It encourages researchers to publish their findings in regional languages.
