Partnerships target education, crop science and food security
PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE
Whether it is solving foundational genomic questions to protect food systems, giving teachers more time to mentor students, or helping local businesses scale, AI is most impactful when it is built in partnership with the people who need it most.
With its deep technical talent, diversity, and thriving digital public infrastructure, India has become the epicenter of applied innovation – showing the world how frontier research can be deployed to deliver population-scale progress and transform everyday lives. Today, we are announcing new initiatives across crop science, education, agriculture, and economic inclusion designed to scale real-world impact from the ground up.
Empowering educators
Google launched the AI Educator Series in India in May in partnership with five state and regional organisations to help teachers use AI tools, including Gemini and NotebookLM, for lesson planning, developing customised learning materials and reducing preparation time.
The programme has trained more than 80,000 educators since its launch. Google is now expanding it through partnerships with Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim and the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
The company is also introducing a free, self-paced online training programme aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The course is currently available in English, with Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Assamese, Odia and Punjabi versions planned.
Separately, Google is supporting educators at 100 Atal Tinkering Labs through ATL Saathi, a Gemini-powered desktop application designed to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
It is also collaborating with IIT Bombay and the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to support research into the application of AI in education.
AI to strengthen food security
Climate change is placing increasing pressure on food systems, making the development of resilient and nutrient-rich crops a priority, particularly in drought-prone regions.
Google DeepMind and Google.org, through the AI Collaborative for Food Security, are collaborating with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, to accelerate research into sorghum, or jowar.
The initiative aims to create an open-access genetic atlas of sorghum varieties to help researchers develop crops suited to diverse needs, including human nutrition, animal fodder and biofuel production.
The project will draw on a representative sample from ICRISAT’s genebank, which contains more than 44,000 distinct seed varieties collected from over 90 countries, including India. Advanced genetic analysis and machine learning will be used to identify promising genetic combinations.
The resulting AI-supported catalogue is expected to help researchers and plant breeders develop more productive and climate-resilient sorghum varieties faster than conventional methods, which can require years of testing.
Google DeepMind will also support a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at ICRISAT. The fellowship, its first in India and the first outside the United Kingdom, will focus on developing tools to characterise the genomes of other important crops, including chickpea, groundnut and pigeon pea.
Research with global implications
The initiative complements India’s focus on millets as a means of strengthening agricultural resilience. By combining genetic research with AI, the project seeks to accelerate crop improvement and support food security beyond India.
Google said its expanding partnerships with scientists, educators, government institutions and grassroots organisations would help ensure that advanced AI technologies address practical challenges and deliver benefits to communities.
The initiatives reflect a broader effort to translate advances in AI research into applications that can improve education, strengthen agriculture and support sustainable development.
