Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday announced plans to establish Artificial Intelligence (AI) labs in all universities across the Union Territory. LG Sinha, while attending an event at the University of Kashmir’s Department of Physics to commemorate National Science Day 2025, also asserted that “AI is the future, and no job is at risk.”
“We aim to set up AI labs in all the universities across Jammu & Kashmir. We should start training faculties for AI,” Sinha said during his address, emphasising the need to equip students with cutting-edge technological skills.
The event, organised in collaboration with Vigyan Bharti, New Delhi, and sponsored by the Science and Technology Council, Government of India, and the UT administration, focused on promoting skill development, entrepreneurship, and scientific temper among students, with a special emphasis on AI.
Sinha, the guest of honor, was accompanied by Secretary of Science and Technology Saurabh Bhagat, Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University Nilofar Khan, and senior faculty members from the university. Highlighting India’s progress in science and technology, Sinha noted that the country ranks sixth globally in innovation and scientific experiments. He credited the emergence of startups from smaller cities as a testament to India’s expanding entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“Most of the startups have come from Tier-2 or Tier-3 states. Our country ranks sixth in innovations and scientific experiments. We have registered record-breaking patents in the last 10 years,” he said.
He also referenced a recent study by the University of Michigan and Microsoft, which found that over 50 per cent of universities worldwide are adopting AI in their curriculum. In light of this, he stressed the need for flexible courses to introduce AI in all universities across Jammu and Kashmir. “More than 200 startups based on scientific innovations have emerged in the past few years in India,” he added.
Addressing concerns about AI replacing human jobs, Sinha dismissed such fears as baseless, drawing parallels with past technological advancements.
“There are many myths revolving around AI, but they’re all baseless,” he said. “We have seen four industrial revolutions. No matter what, human beings can’t be replaced. There is no job threat. Even when computers came into existence, the notion was the same—but that was just a myth,” he added. Meanwhile, Sinha also inaugurated a newly constructed synthetic athletic track at Kashmir University.
