The chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla, stated on Sunday that cross-functional education is essential to staying up with technological developments like artificial intelligence (AI).
Cross-functional curricula, he clarified, entailed taking several classes at various campuses at the same time. “I believe that more cross-functional education is urgently needed. In response to Mint’s query during a press conference at the Birla Institute of Technological Sciences (BITS), Pilani, Birla stated that the curriculum of many subjects needs to be updated or expanded with transeducational courses.
After more than ten years, Birla, the chancellor of BITS Pilani, returned to the engineering college’s campus to preside over the 2025 batch’s convocation.
He emphasized the institute’s degree program, which enables students to concurrently pursue a master’s degree in management from BITS School of Management (BITSoM) and engineering at BITS Pilani. He stated, “I believe that is the new area of focus, and that is how the real world operates.”
Campus of AI+
Additionally, Birla revealed plans to invest ₹1,000 crore to establish a campus in Amravati, Andhra Pradesh, with a focus on artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. By 2027, Birla expects this “AI+ campus” to enroll its first class.
This campus’s main goal is to develop Indian talent for leadership roles in the cutting-edge technologies of our day. AI, data science, robotics, computational linguistics, and cyber-physical systems will be the areas of expertise on this forward-thinking campus, he stated.
With an emphasis on global best practices, he continued, “the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs have been designed with industry internships, joint PhDs with top international universities, and hybrid twinning models that give students true international exposure.”
In addition to this new campus, Birla made two other significant announcements. Project Vistaar, which focuses on creating “capacity at scale,” was about the expansion of its campuses in Pilani, Hyderabad, and Goa. In order to create a comprehensive, future-ready learning environment, more than ₹1,200 crore is being invested in building new academic buildings, state-of-the-art research facilities, faculty residences, and dorms for students.
Over the next five years, Birla hopes to increase the number of students at these three campuses from 16,000 to 21,000, while the overall number of students at all BITS campuses is expected to increase from over 18,700 to roughly 26,000 during that time.
In addition, he declared the opening of BITS Pilani Digital, an edtech platform that will provide 32 programs over the course of the next five years, including 21 certificate and 11 degree programs. Over 100,000 learners, including high school students, college students, undergraduates, and working professionals, are the target audience for the platform.
While growing campuses is important, scale, adaptability, and inclusivity are also necessary to meet India’s educational challenges. India is among the youngest countries in the world. Birla emphasized the significance of this edtech program by saying, “The harsh truth is that too many of our bright, ambitious minds still lack access to the kind of high-quality, flexible education that transforms lives, even though nearly 65% of our population is under 35.”
