Lok Sabha Question No. 1557 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-07-28
Subject: Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Technology
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: T.R.V.S. Ramesh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1557

TO BE ANSWERED ON 28.07.2021

## AUGMENTED REALITY AND VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY

## 1557.   SHRI T.R.V.S. RAMESH:

## Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

- (a) whether the Government proposes to promote Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Technology in the Electronics and Information Technology sectors and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether  AR  and  VR  Technology  is  helpful  in  generating  awareness  about  the  various concept related issue in the said sectors and if so, the details thereof
- (c) whether the Government has collaborated with any agency (ies) or any other entity for the introduction of this innovative technology in the fields of IT and Electronics and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the  Government has developed  any infrastructure  for  imparting  education  and training of this technology aimed at the appropriate target group (s) and if so, the details thereof;

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR   ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

(a):    Yes,  Sir.  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  (MeitY)  is  involved  in promoting and encouraging AR & VR Technology and Startups through its agencies like CDAC and STPI in the Electronics and Information Technology sectors. The initiatives in this regard are as under:

- i. MeitY, through Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), has established the following Centres of Excellence (CoE) in AR and VR domain:
1. Virtual/Augmented Reality (VARCoE) at Bhubaneswar: A CoE for AR and VR has been established at IIT- Bhubaneswar with an objective to promote R & D, Technology incubation, product development and entrepreneurship in AR & VR. This CoE has been made operational in the month of January 2018.  The focus areas of this CoE are Education, Health, and Automation.
2. Emerging Technologies (AR/VR) at Imphal: A CoE for AR/VR at Imphal has been established with an objective to incubate innovative start-ups in AR/VR. This CoE has been operational in the month of July 2020. The focus area of this CoE is to support  start-ups  &  innovation  in  the  field  of  Educational  Technology,  Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Gaming, and Animation etc.
- ii. PARAM Shavak AR/VR: C-DAC has developed and deployed PARAM Shavak AR/VRSupercomputing Solution. C-DAC's PARAM Shavak AR/VR is a powerful virtual reality appliance which is capable of creating VR experiences closest to reality. This is also being effectively used towards skill generation enabling students and researchers to experiment with 3D virtual models.
5. (b):  AR and VR technologies are helpful in creating immersive experiences which can be utilized for generating awareness about various components in the field of Electronics and Information Technology.
- i. VARCoE IIT Bhubaneswar is regularly organizing Workshops, Hackathons, Webinars etc. to  promote  and  create  awareness  among  students,  researchers,  and  innovators  for  the implementation of AR/VR  technology  across  sectors such as Education, Health, Entertainment, Construction, Tourism and Oil, Natural Gas & Steel Industries etc.
- ii. Virtual  Reality  Museums  -  VR  Museum  can  be  created  wherein  3D  models  of  chosen masterpieces selected from national museums situated in geographically remote locations can  be  made  available  in  an  online  VR  Museum.  C-DAC  has  3D-digitized  around  50 objects from 5 museums from the Northeast states.
8. (c):   Yes,  Sir.  MeitY  has  collaborated  with  STPI  &  CDAC  and  the  contributions  are  as  listed below:
- i. VARCoE at IIT Bhubaneswar has been established by STPI in collaboration with MSME Department, Government of Odisha and IIT Bhubaneswar.
- ii. AR/VR CoE at Imphal has been established by STPI in collaboration with the Government of Manipur, NIT Imphal, Manipur University, and IIIT Imphal.
- iii. Under FutureSkills PRIME, C-DAC in collaboration with NASSCOM and NIELET has been imparting trainings on AR & VR technologies.
12. (d):  The following infrastructure for imparting education and training of AR & VR technologies has been established:-
- i. Virtual/Augmented Reality (VARCoE) has set up labs and related physical infrastructure at IIT-Bhubaneswar to incubated projects/start-ups.
- ii. FutureSkills PRIME has been developed in collaboration with CDAC, NASSCOM, and NIELIT. It is aimed at re-skilling/ up-skilling of IT professionals in emerging and futuristic technologies including AR & VR technologies.

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