Education Technology | Innovations and Insights - Edinbox

One major step in the right direction for school talent in AI, in my opinion, would be INAIO 2026, which stands for Indian National AI Olympiad of 2026.

This was announced by the ACM India chapter, a national chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, on Thursday (December 18). “The plan is to identify students to be selected to attend the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence in the next year,” an announcement said.

The INAIO 2026 has been launched as the only approved alternative for this purpose in India, as it is one of the premier international forums where the brightest young minds meet to showcase their thoughts on Artificial Intelligence.

The aim of conducting this Olympiad is to check their understanding as well as aptness for applications related to Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning.

The INAIO 2026 exam is going to be an online exam that is scheduled for January 18th. It will be proctored, and it is going to be conducted through the online assessment technology platform provided by HireMee.

The process of registering for the exam is currently ongoing and would be closed by the 31st of December, 2025.

Candidates with birthdates after August 2nd, 2006 will be qualified to apply to the IOAI hiring process.

The result of the performance on the national test will decide the progress at various levels of assessment until the Indian team selection for the international olympiad.

ACM India has also developed a fast track system for students who have already showcased excellence in some other competitive events.

Shortlisted toppers from various olympiads like Indian National Mathematical Olympiad, Indian National Olympiad in Informatics, Physics League Olympiad, and Bebras will be selected to directly move to Stage 2 for INAIO 2026.

This should attract lots of qualified and bright students who possess analytic and mathematical skills.

Unlike in other competitive exams, for which there is a requisite pattern in holding levels, INAIO has a planned pattern for its levels, focusing not only on theoretical knowledge, but also on being able to model in a highly skilled fashion. This will help the participants broaden their knowledge of concepts, as well as encourage applications related to machine learning. This is in line with the emerging needs of education in AI technology.

As quoted in an article by ACM India, “The goal of the Olympiad program is not merely a mechanism of choice, but also an experience of the latest technology and international norms.” E-certificate holders will be distributed to all participants at INAIO 2026 as appreciation for their attendance at the national competition.

The top three students in the entire country will receive prizes, while the best students will achieve international recognition through their association with a world-famous Olympiad. Also, the initial 500 applicants would be able to avail the Career Navigation Assessment of the service of HireMee, which would cost them Rs. 1,599 separately.

ACM India has also observed that performance in Olympiad problems can also help improve the chances of being offered a scholarship and admission in top universities abroad. The INAIO 2026 inauguration has been followed by the initiative to enhance the education system of artificial intelligence in India, specifically in schools. As the impact of AI is rising in the higher education system, research, and industries, initiatives such as the INAIO are being considered as highly significant platforms where the talents are being recognized and developed at a young age. The students, schools, or parents interested in INAIO India can gather the required information regarding INAIO India from the official website of INAIO India.

Moving forward in a major way to enhance top-level technological education and innovation, the authorities of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University have started the process to open an advanced Artificial Intelligence lab. This lab is expected to be developed at an estimated cost of Rs 1.5 crore. The proposed project will be implemented under PM-USHA.

Budget Allocation: The University Grants Commission, or UGC, has allocated a total amount of Rs 100 crores to the university in PM-USHA funds. Of this, Rs 3 crores have been allocated for the ‘soft component’ in particular for the development of student skills. It is in these allocated budget details that the AI lab would be formed.

Preparation:

A team has been developed to prepare the blue print of the laboratory. As a part of the planning activity, the university team has recently visited NIELIT Deemed University to analyze their setup and technical perspective.

Advanced Infrastructure and Capabilities

“The aim of the new laboratory is to offer world-class technical infrastructure to provide a new direction for organised research and innovation. Key technical aspects are:”

Centralised Server: There will be a centralised GPU server that has a high capacity, which would form the backbone for training large models, deep learning, and complex data analysis.

Workstations: It will have 7 to 11 workstations featuring GPUs, thus enhancing computing capabilities at the university.

Academic Influence and Future Outlook

This lab is anticipated to launch systematic research activities at a high level at this university. Benefits for the Students: This will directly benefit students enrolled in the existing courses like B. Tech (AI) and MS (AI). Centre of Excellence: The proposed plan has envisioned the establishment of the lab as a Centre of Excellence in the future. As per this plan, the university aims to emerge as an active player in technical education and research in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Official Statement Vice-Chancellor of Gorakhpur University, Prof. Poonam Tandon, said, "The AI lab will come up through sanctioned budgets from the PM-USHA scheme. This lab will be developed as a ‘Center of Excellence’ in the future. This will help the university to establish itself as a ‘Center for Technical Education, Research, and Innovation for eastern Uttar Pradesh’. This will be a big achievement for our students."

As observed in other top-notch IITs, "Computer Science & Engineering is the most popular stream in the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur." It received 19,513 choices in 2025, which has been increasing from the previous year's 16,506 seats by a prominent 18.22 percent. The reason for this is the ever-growing popularity observed in the core streams relating to computing, and this has been the aftermath of the increasing demand in software engineering, system designs, and digital technologies to come.

However, the sharpest growth this year has been seen in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, with an increase of 20.17 percent, where the choices have moved up from 14,233 in 2024 to 17,104 in 2025. The remarkable growth clearly shows that students are now eager to acquire solutions using AI.

The IIT Jodhpur has expressed a remarkable preference regarding admission into different undergraduate programs offered at the institute during 2025, as is clear from the most recent information provided by the Joint Implementation Committee.

In the traditional sectors, the fastest-rising field was that of Civil & Infrastructure Engineering, with a growth rate of 16.91%, an increase from 8,598 to 10,052. Another traditional sector that showed a good rate of growth in the number of choices was Mechanical Engineering, with a growth rate of 15.01%, an increase from 12,091 to 13,906.

Electrical Engineering witnesed a truly remarkable growth of 14.05%, with the number of choices escalating from 13,629 to 15,544, largely due to the interest in the realms of power systems, electronics, embedded systems, as well as the emerging ones associated with semiconductors. The growth in output performance attained by the Chemical Engineering discipline is truly appreciable with the remarkable growth rate of 13.37%, advancing from 9,859 to 11,177.

One of the disciplines introduced as a novel course this year is Electronics Engineering, which was introduced as an undergraduate program and has managed to record a total of 13,265 selections by its first year of introduction.

Interdisciplinary & Science-Oriented courses also continued to register an increase. The Materials Engineering course registered a 14.99% increment with 7,130 to 8,199 preferences, and the Bio Engineering course registered a 12.66% increase with 6,319 to 7,119 preferences. Programmes offered in combination with Core Sciences and Engineering Applications also registered a notable increase. Chemistry with Specialisation recorded an increase of 16.42%, reaching 5,559 from 4,775, while Physics with Specialisation recorded a 13.70% increase to 5,902 from 5,191.

Hence, on an overall level, the JIC 2025 statistics indicate that IIT Jodhpur is gradually rising in rank in various streams, in which CSE is leading at the top rank, while AI/DS and Infrastructure streams are rising at a faster rate.

The Department of Posts has released the draft amendment to the Post Office Act, 2023, unveiling the DHRUVA framework that will allow for shorter UPI-like address labels.

Our addresses might now follow the path of monetary transactions. Just as the launch and popularisation, and subsequent democratization of the UPI payments system did away with the requirement to remember bank account numbers and IFSC codes for money transfers, the same might happen to your addresses-courtesy India Post's new initiative 'DHRUVA.'

What is DHRUVA?

The DHRUVA framework, for Digital Hub for Reference and Unique Virtual Address, has been in discussion for a couple of months now, The Hindu reports. One of its important facets, DIGIPIN, was launched this March.

Through DHRUVA, India Post seeks to replace lengthy forms of physical addresses with somewhat shorter forms, an electronic mail or UPI address, for example. Long address forms will be compressed into 'name@entity' like forms.

The government hopes to get participation from e-commerce platforms where consumers have to put in long addresses, almost every time they make a purchase, for the delivery of the product. Instead of the addresses, the DHRUVA label will give the service providers the exact location of consumers through geographic coordinates, The Hindu reported.

What is DIGIPIN?

DIGIPIN, a forerunner of the DHRUVA framework, was implemented by India Post in March 2025, representing a ten-character latitude and longitude coordinate of a person. DIGIPIN pinpoints exact locations and does not require the usage of full-length addresses.

Will your data be safe with DHRUVA?

The Department of Posts has made available a draft amendment to the Post Office Act, 2023, to introduce DHRUVA. The whole operation shall work on consent from the consumer given for allowing private firms the use of their DHRUVA labels. Re-authorisation is to be made from time to time. The government is not proposing to make the usage and integration of DHRUVA compulsory for private players, but feels the clutter-free character of the platform will be attractive enough for them to participate in the programme, reported The Hindu.

Job opportunities emerging from these investments will include direct, indirect, induced, and seasonal jobs, which will be derived from the expansion of Amazon’s logistics and delivery network, as well as industries such as packaging, manufacturing, and transportation.

Amazon is one of the most aggressive players in the industry with a series of brutal layoffs as far as branding goes. But the US giant is betting heavily on investments in India. With an investment of $35 billion in the country, Amazon has announced one of their most ambitious commitments to date in the Indian market, which will help generate an additional one million (10 lakh) jobs in the country by 2030. The company cut 14,000 jobs in their corporate functions in early this year in a restructuring exercise to focus on future investments in generative AI.

The massive investment plan, which was announced during the company’s Smbhav Summit event in New Delhi, demonstrates the immense faith in the future of technology in the digital and economy realms in India, a time when the tech giant is in a massive restructuring process globally, in which they laid off a staggering 14,000 employees. Major investments have recently been witnessed in India by tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Cognizant.

Amazon doubles in on India’s digital ecosystem

The $35 billion investment will focus on three major sectors: using AI technology in digitization, enhancing exports in India, and increasing employment opportunities. This latest investment is in addition to nearly $40 billion of investments already made by Amazon in India since entering in 2010. This investment went into developing massive storage centers, logistics, and cloud solutions.

At present, Amazon supports 2.8 million jobs in India, direct, indirect, induced, and seasonal jobs, through an economic impact report generated by Keystone Strategy, which took place during this summit.

"We see our own growth plans very much in line with what is happening in terms of national development in this country," Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President of Emerging Markets at Amazon, pointed out, "We want to democratize access to AI for millions of Indians and quadruple our cumulative e-commerce exports to $80 billion by 2030."

Artificial intelligence, exports, and employment The expected new jobs will come from the direct, indirect, induced, and seasonal jobs emerging from the growing logistics, fulfillment, and delivery networks of Amazon and related industries such as packaging, manufacturing, and transportation. With a view to further promote exports, Amazon is stepping up their ‘Global Selling’ initiative, which so far has facilitated exports of over $20 billion in cumulative online exports from India. Additionally, they will reach 15 million small businesses with AI solutions and expose four million government school students to AI learning by 2030.

Webcams make the faces of our loved ones ever closer to us and our privacy ever more remote. The act of linked conferencing for business or communicating with our loved ones living in different cities or, what's more, different countries, has imperceptibly entered our lives, and then, of course, COVID-19 just hastened the process, and to date, many firms continue to work “in cyberspace” or with a mixed format.

Switching on the camera has become a mere habit now. In comparison, the convenience that it affords has a catch that not a single soul predicted. This is the fact that cyber fraudsters can easily access your webcam without you actually knowing what is occurring. After hacking into it, they can monitor what you are doing in the surroundings that are within your visibility, steal some confidential information, and worst comes to worst, they may end up blackmailing or extorting money from you. However, the bright side for you is that it can be remedied by instilling the right habits.

Webcams require careful attention concerning positioning and framing. If the webcam zooms into the image automatically and changes angles without your intervention, that is suspicious activity. Most hackers will change the settings of the webcam according to their needs. Moreover, it is very easy and effective to either cover your webcam with a tape or a sliding webcam cover. It will remain exposed only if and when you wish to use it and will go back once you are finished.

When downloading any application or software, be very careful. There are applications that tend to ask for camera access even if there’s no need at all. If you feel that there is no need to give any application access to your camera, then don’t allow them to. The fewer applications you allow to use your camera, the better.

Installing anti-virus software is always essential. Now, the installation of anti-spy software is also of utmost importance. They automatically identify any unwanted software or suspicious links in the initial stage itself and thus always make sure that the pathways remain closed to hackers on your computer. "You never click on links or download any files that arrive in the form of an email message whose addresses are unknown," cautions Marc Bizarri of Qスコア. "These often contain Trojans that will guide the actions of the web cam or even the computer itself." "If the suspicious email message is from contacts in your address book," Marc goes on to explain, "you should warn them about the issue. Their email account might have been compromised." Furthermore, as an added measure of protection, always make it a habit to turn on the PC camera only when there is actually a need to access it and turn it off when not in use through the settings function. Always keep the operating system up-to-date as security updates often provide essential security fixes protecting the operating system from certain security risks operating in the background.