IIT Delhi alumnus Anant Yardi to gift USD 10 million to institute

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi’s alumnus Anant Yardi, President and Founder of Yardi Systems, will gift USD 10 million (approximately Rs 75 crore) to the institute.

Yardi’s gift would enable IIT Delhi to create state-of-the art laboratories and attract talented students and researchers to its newly established School of Artificial Intelligence (ScAI), the institute said in an official statement.

Also Read | IIT Delhi needs to reach a budget of Rs 2,000 crore per year: V Ramgopal Rao

Before setting up Yardi Systems, he worked at Burroughs Corporation as a software development manager. Anant has an MS in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and BTech (Director’s Gold Medallist) from IIT Delhi.

Explaining his reasons behind making the endowment, Yardi stated: “...We look forward to the ScAI strengthening education and research in AI, Machine Learning and Data Science, to enable commercial and societal applications. I am pleased to contribute to the School of Artificial Intelligence and help IIT Delhi continue its outstanding work in the field of academics and engineering.”

Also Read | IIT Delhi to host 52nd convocation tomorrow for over 2,000 graduates

The School of Artificial Intelligence was set up by the IIT Delhi for the purpose of expanding opportunities for fundamental, and interdisciplinary research, innovation and post-graduate education in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, and Data Science technologies.

Professor Mausam, Founding Head, ScAI, said: “A key purpose of setting up ScAI is to not only develop and support the growth of AI researchers in the country, but also strengthen IIT Delhi’s place on the global AI map. Mr. Yardi’s contribution will greatly enable the realisation of ScAI objectives.”

Also Read | IIT Bombay’s four students, two professors win 2.5 lakh dollars XPrize grant: Report

Acknowledging the proposed gift, Prof V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi, said: “We are proud of our successful alumni who have received national and international recognition and are grateful for this contribution considered by Mr. Anant Yardi...This generous gift will catalyse cutting edge research in AI and related areas and propel ScAI and IIT Delhi in their quest for building better solutions for the benefit of our Society, Environment, Industry and Nation.”