IIMC launches AIME Academy to strengthen AI-driven media education in India

Ziraat Times Team Report

New Delhi, May 29: The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi, on Friday launched the AIME Academy (AI Academy for Media and Entertainment), a new initiative aimed at strengthening AI-driven media education, research and capacity building in India.

The academy was inaugurated by Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sh Chanchal Kumar in the presence of IIMC Vice Chancellor Dr Pragya Paliwal Gaur and Google DeepMind India Senior Director Dr Manish Gupta at the IIMC campus in New Delhi.

The occasion also marked the successful completion of a 10-week hybrid AI Skills Training Programme, under which more than 110 newsroom professionals, media educators and students from over 100 newsrooms and media colleges across 23 cities and more than 10 Indian languages were trained.

National centre for AI in media

According to officials, the AIME Academy has been envisioned as a national centre of excellence for artificial intelligence in media and entertainment.

Built around a five-pillar framework — capacity building, research, innovation and incubation, responsible AI policy development and strategic collaboration — the academy aims to help IIMC transition from traditional media education towards future-oriented media capabilities.

The academy will develop India-specific AI training modules, support applied research in AI-assisted journalism, document newsroom AI adoption practices and promote responsible use of AI across the media ecosystem.

Officials said IIMC, with campuses in New Delhi, Dhenkanal, Jammu, Aizawl, Amravati and Kottayam, is uniquely positioned to build language-specific AI capacity across the country.

The initiative also seeks to bring Indian realities, including multilingual communication, public service broadcasting, rural audiences and democratic diversity, into the global discourse on AI and media.

Over 110 participants complete AI programme

During the certificate ceremony, participants from Doordarshan, Akashvani (All India Radio), Press Information Bureau (PIB), Publications Division and IIMC were recognised for successfully completing the AI Skills Training Programme.

The programme provided participants from government communication institutions as well as private newsrooms with foundational AI literacy and practical exposure to Google AI tools such as NotebookLM, Gemini, AI Studio and Pinpoint.

The AI Skills Training Programme was launched by IIMC in partnership with Google, with training support from How India Lives.

The programme brought together participants from print, digital, broadcast, regional and local newsrooms across both public and private sectors.

According to programme details, the initiative involved more than 40 hours of AI training and one-on-one mentoring per participant, resulting in over 170 AI-powered projects and published works, besides the development of more than 50 applications by participants.

‘AI should assist, not replace editorial responsibility’

Addressing the gathering, Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sh Chanchal Kumar said the programme marked an important transition in how Indian media institutions are preparing for the future.

“Today’s occasion is not merely a certificate ceremony. It marks a larger transition in the way Indian media institutions are preparing themselves for the future,” he said.

The Secretary said the key challenge was not whether AI would influence media, but whether journalists, editors and communication professionals would shape AI “with confidence, responsibility and an India-centric perspective.”

Highlighting the role of public service media institutions such as Doordarshan, Akashvani, PIB and Publications Division, he said their preparedness for AI was especially important given their communication responsibilities across languages and regions.

“AI may be used as an assistant, but not as a substitute for editorial responsibility. It may improve speed, but not at the cost of accuracy. It may support creativity, but not at the cost of authenticity. The role of human judgement will become even more important in the AI age,” he said.

The Secretary also described the government’s approach to AI as “positive, enabling and responsible,” aligned with the Prime Minister’s vision of “Make AI in India” and “Make AI Work for India.”