Telecommunication Engineering Centre and IIIT Sign MoU for AI Collaboration

Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), technical arm of Department of Telecommunications (DOT), Ministry of Communications, Government of India, and the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIITD), have united to drive innovation in the realm of Trustworthy and Responsible Artificial Intelligence Systems.

Underlining their commitment to pioneering advancements in Responsible AI, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on November 3, 2023. This collaboration specifically concentrates on addressing biases in AI systems and promoting fairness assessments while nurturing public trust in these technologies, aligning with the Government of India’s objectives.

A pivotal aspect of Responsible AI is ensuring unbiased and fair AI/ML systems. The TEC has recently released a Standard for Fairness Assessment and Rating of Artificial Intelligence Systems to build public trust in AI, developed after exhaustive stakeholder consultations. This collaboration aims to develop tools to assess bias risks systematically and to establish a robust framework for evaluating and certifying the fairness and reliability of AI technologies.

Smt Tripti Saxena, Senior Deputy Director General at TEC, expressed the significance of this partnership, highlighting its potential to drive groundbreaking solutions for fairness assessment and rating of AI systems. This MoU serves to bridge the gap between academia and government bodies, fostering rigorous research and contributing to India’s leadership in AI.

Prof Ranjan Bose, Director of IIIT Delhi, emphasised the transformative nature of this partnership, marking a substantial leap forward in research, innovation, and technological advancements in the AI domain. He outlined that the Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAI) will lead the execution of this collaborative effort at IIITD. The head of CAI, Dr. Debarka Sengupta reiterated the importance of academia serving as an impartial partner of TEC in developing and assessing robust and fair AI systems. Further, Dr Ranjitha Prasad led the discussions outlining the significance of the MoU for facilitating a pivotal role of CAI as the research and development partner of TEC for ascertaining fairness in AI systems.

The MoU was signed by Sh. Avinash Agarwal, DDG (C&B) from TEC, and Smt Deepika Bhaskar, Registrar from IIIT Delhi, fomalising the joint commitment and roadmap for this initiative.

The TEC stands as the recognised Standards Setting Organization (SSO) in the telecommunications and related ICT sector within the country. It formulates standards for telecom and related ICT equipment, networks, systems, and services deployed in the Indian Telecom Network. The IIITD, established under The IIIT Delhi Act, 2007, focuses on granting engineering degrees with a specialisation in Information Technology.