Srinagar, March 19: The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has launched the second edition of AICTE-VAANI (Vibrant Advocacy for Advancement and Nurturing of Indian Languages), reinforcing its commitment to integrating Indian languages into technical education.
The initiative, inaugurated by AICTE Chairman T.G. Sitharam, aims to enhance accessibility to technological advancements in regional languages by supporting 200 conferences, seminars, and workshops across the country. Rs 4 crore in funding has been allocated, with each event receiving ₹2 lakh. In his address, T G Sitharam highlighted that the scheme encourages the publication of research papers in regional languages and fosters collaboration between academic institutions and industries. He noted that the number of regional languages covered under the initiative has expanded from 12 to 22, while the thrust areas have increased to 16 emerging fields, including Quantum Technology, Hydrogen Energy, AI & Data Science, Cybersecurity and Agrotech and Food Processing.
AICTE Vice Chairman Abhay Jere underscored the importance of regional languages in education, stating that critical thinking and problem-solving must take precedence over language barriers. He also proposed creating a repository of all conference proceedings for future research and reference.
Under the AICTE, languages covered include Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Sixteen emerging fields in technical education, such as Quantum Technology, Space and Defence, Hydrogen Energy, AI and Data Science, Cybersecurity, and Agrotech and Food Processing. Online applications for AICTE-approved institutions will open from 25 March to 24 April 2025 via the AICTE-ATAL Portal (https://www.aicte-india.org/atal). Institutions will be selected based on AICTE’s criteria to ensure quality and relevance in organising conferences, seminars and workshops.
