'Don't do North-South politics, Centre did not...': Zoho CEO responds to Mohandas Pai

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu has responded to former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai, who yesterday questioned the Centre for not setting up any of 3 AI Centres of Excellence in South. Vembu rejected the discrimination charge, saying the committee that decided the centers had the majority of people from South.    

On Tuesday, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched three AI centers: one at IIT-Kanpur, one at IIT-Ropar, and a joint center at IIT-Delhi and AIIMS. These centres -- that will engage in interdisciplinary research, develop innovative applications, and create scalable solutions -- will focus on healthcare, agriculture, and sustainable cities. 

Soon after the launch, Pai alleged that the Centre was ignoring Bengaluru, the technology capital of India. 

Today, Vembu responded to this charge because he was the co-chair of the apex committee that decided the 3 AI Centres of Excellence. He said the committee itself had plenty of people from the South (probably the majority). 

"Most of us came from the private sector and the Government did not tell us who we should select. We in the committee (again with so many of us from the South and so many from the private sector) did the selection based on a very thorough evaluation of actual projects done," Zoho CEO said. 

"The responsibility for this decision on the AI Centres of Excellence should be with us in the committee and personally with me as Co-chair and I beg people to not inject North-South politics in this," he said. 

Vembu said IISc Bengaluru, IIT Chennai, NIT Calicut, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Mumbai all presented very strong proposals but the ones the committee selected stood out in the end. "The committee was unanimous in this decision. We stand by our judgment."

The Zoho CEO further added that the consortiums selected include southern institutions. "For instance the AI CoE on Health led by the AIIMS consortium includes IISc Bengaluru and IIT Chennai...IISc and IIT-M are part of the AIIMS-led consortium for AI CoE on Health. The committee had distinguished people from both Bengaluru and Chennai. I went to IIT-M myself. Again I beg people to avoid the North-South arguments in this please," he said. 

Pai asked Vembu to release the ranking criteria and scoring to ensure transparency. "For sustainable cities who are the members of the consortium?" he asked. He said it was surprising that instititions like IIT Madras, and IISC Bangalore who stand out for the work in this area did not come on top. "This is about Hi tech, futuristic, institutional capacity, ecosystem around institutions which matter for the output."

 

"Why only 3 AI COE. If the issue is to take India forward there should be many more COE with India's best institutions which lead in this area being included. Why be parsimonious in this area?" he asked.