The 2nd Edition of the Orientation Course on AI for Medical Professionals, jointly organized by NAMS, iHub-Data, and IIITH, concluded on September 21 with a day-long offline valedictory session held simultaneously in Delhi and Hyderabad. Launched on June 15, this 12-week program introduced 110 participants from India, the U.S., the U.K., Romania, Cambodia, and the UAE to the fundamentals and applications of AI in healthcare. Delivered through pre-recorded lectures, live Q&A sessions, tutorials, and no-code AI demonstrations, the course simplified complex AI concepts for medical professionals from non-technical backgrounds. The valedictory session featured the Course Report by Prof. Bapi Raju, closing remarks by Prof. Sandeep Shukla, Director, IIIT Hyderabad, and Padma Shri Dr. D. Behera, President, NAMS, along with addresses by Padma Shri Dr. Yogesh Chawla and Prof. Y.K. Gupta, Principal Advisor, GARDP. Certificates will be jointly issued by NAMS, iHub-Data, and IIIT Hyderabad.

CIE@IIITH in collaboration with Hexaware Technologies, hosted the AI for Life Sciences Challenge Finale, a platform to reimagine the future of clinical trials with Agentic AI at 18 Sept. The challenge concluded with a full-day event at IIITH featuring startup pitches, mentor immersion, jury evaluations, and an industry plenary panel on “Building Agentic AI in Healthcare – Science & Commercialization.” The challenge received 130 applications, with 30 startups shortlisted, 17 advancing to Round 2, and 13 making it to the finale. Finalists presented innovations including CSR automation with co-drafting agents, clinical site management and data process automation, agentic AI lifecycle platforms, data harmonization with knowledge insights, and schema-bound CSR automation with auditability. The top five finalists were Astra AI, Ciberts AI, Pentacure, Optimum Data, and Microgrid. Ciberts AI was declared the winner, receiving a ₹8 Lakh PoC Grant and productization support from Hexaware.

While celebrating National Engineers’ Day, experts emphasise the need for collaboration, risk-taking, and ethical frameworks to build a sustainable and responsible DeepTech ecosystem for India’s future. From a decade when “everyone wanted to be an engineer” to what is now being hailed as India’s Techade, the journey of engineering as a profession has seen a remarkable transformation. Today, it’s just as likely to mean algorithms, data models, or neural networks. Prof Sandeep K. Shukla says: “The problem in India that the DeepTech startups are facing today is not so much on the funding side, but on the side of acceptance of their products by the government entities, PSUs, and larger corporations in general. While there are enough programs and schemes from the government to incubate, there are no concomitant changes in the policy or incentivization in accepting DeepTech products in place of well-established products.”