AI and start-up skills from Class 6, IIT Hyderabad to write the syllabus: Naidu; Amaravati's IBM quantum computer to open in February 2027

Andhra Pradesh will teach AI and entrepreneurship from Class 6, with a school syllabus prepared by IIT Hyderabad, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu told reporters in Vijayawada on Saturday after the PanIIT Andhra Pradesh Summit.

"IIT Hyderabad has prepared some syllabus for engineering colleges. IIT Hyderabad, we will also ask them to prepare syllabus for high schools. We will adopt it," he said. Asked when it would start, he said: "We will plan it next year. There is time, we will prepare next year."

50 lakh AI learners

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a target of one crore AI learners, Naidu said, and Andhra Pradesh is planning for 50 lakh of them. Some 30 to 40 lakh places have already been tied up with IITs and companies, with the syllabus and virtual courses in preparation.

"By 2047, one family, one entrepreneur. That is our concept," he said. "For one family, one entrepreneur, from sixth class onwards we will start entrepreneur skills and also AI skills. If we do all these things, automatically quality of education will be upgraded."

He repeated what the IITs had agreed at the summit: one IIT in partnership with each university, changing its curriculum, training its faculty and setting up an incubation centre and a centre of excellence on the same campus. Read the full list of promises.

The IBM quantum computer: February 2027

On Amaravati's quantum plans, he gave a date. IBM, TCS and L&T formed a consortium to bring a quantum computer to the capital. "Second February, 2027, we are inaugurating, we are starting operations."

He then asked local companies whether India would only ever buy quantum computers. "Always we are becoming users of a product, not producing a product. Then they took it as a challenge. Within two years, they promised me commercial quantum computers will be produced in India." The first systems built in Amaravati, launched at the summit as QShiva, are going to universities for demonstration and training.

"America is having Silicon Valley. Now, Quantum Valley is in India, that too in Amaravati," he said. "Silicon, present brand. Quantum, tomorrow brand."

Satellites and solar

India took 25 years to build its own 4G, he said, and now private companies are launching satellites. The foundation for a satellite project would be laid in a month or two, he said, and within two years it would produce at least two satellites a month.

He offered solar power as proof of how quickly things can change. "Even when I came two years back, I used to get solar panels import from China. Today, Andhra is surplus. We can give it to others also."

'Administrative cost is peanuts'

Asked whether the state would fund the new PanIIT Amaravati Council, and how much it would spend, Naidu waved the question away. "In the large picture, administrative cost is peanuts," he said. The value, he said, lies in some 2,000 delegates and the directors and professors of 23 IITs bringing their ideas to the state.

Also from the summit: the PanIIT Amaravati Council, venture fund and QShiva launch.