India designated IIT-Madras as United Nations AI Centre of Excellence

India has nominated the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-Madras) as the United Nations Centre of Excellence (CoE) for AI. The announcement of this nomination by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was made at a high-level United Nations event in New York.

• By designating the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-Madras) as the United Nations Centre of Excellence (CoE) for AI, India has taken an important step toward global leadership in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
• The announcement of this designation by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was made at a high-level United Nations event in New York, which particularly signals India’s growing commitment to AI capacity building, skill development, and inclusive digital growth, especially in the Global South.
• Recognized as a prestigious institution, IIT-Madras has been a leader in AI research, skill development, and innovation in India. Its designation as a United Nations Centre of Excellence is part of the initiative by the United Nations Office of Digital and Emerging Technology (ODET) to build a network of global AI centers.

United Nations Centre of Excellence (CoE) for AI

• ODET is an organization established to help the United Nations more effectively address the opportunities and challenges posed by the rapidly evolving technological landscape, including the areas of AI governance.
• Various countries will designate an institution under ODET to build a network of Centres of Excellence.
• An event jointly hosted by Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Kenya and supported by the United Nations ODET was titled, “Empowering Nations for Inclusive Prosperity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
• They informed that India is hosting the AI Impact Summit in February 2026 and invited countries and companies to join this summit.
• They also highlighted India’s mission with the India AI initiative and said that under this mission, India has 38,000 GPUs and AI capacity is increasing every day. They further said that 300 open-source models have been hosted there, and more are coming.

India’s first AI-based command center for pilgrims in Tirumala

• Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has launched India’s first AI-powered Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) in Tirumala.
• Inaugurated on September 25, 2025, by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, the center aims to revolutionize the way pilgrim traffic, security, and darshan management are handled at one of the world’s busiest religious sites.
• This is a significant leap in adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) for smart administration in temple management, especially during peak seasons when millions of devotees gather on the holy hills.
• Located in the Vaikuntham Queue Complex, the new command hub can forecast Sarva Darshanam waiting times, view crowds in 3D, and integrate cyber threat monitoring to ensure the safety of pilgrims and temple systems.
• With more than 6,000 AI cameras and high-performance computing, Tirumala now processes millions of daily events to provide faster queues and smart incident response.
• Powered by AI/ML and NVIDIA-supported infrastructure, Tirumala’s command center can provide real-time density tracking, anomaly detection, and protection against misinformation.