My Journey and Gratitude
It all began when I enrolled in the PadhAI programme offered by One Fourth Labs — a course on Deep Learning, and later the Foundations of Data Science. I was one of the students of the very first batch. At that time, I did not have a job, and could not afford the course fee. Yet the professors allowed me to continue and learn — a gesture that still moves me today.
That opportunity changed my life. Each lecture, assignment, and notebook became a stepping stone. What began as a simple desire to understand data transformed into a passion to analyze, automate, and build. Everything on this website — from my Python Links to my Data Science pages — carries the foundation laid by those courses.
Later, the same professors who created PadhAI launched a larger initiative at IIT Madras — AI4Bharat — aiming to bring Artificial Intelligence to every Indian language and region. Watching them grow from teachers to nation-builders fills me with pride and deep respect.
“Knowledge becomes meaningful only when it’s shared selflessly.”
This page is my way of saying thank you — to the professors, mentors, and the entire PadhAI community — for teaching me that education, when shared with compassion, can change lives.
From PadhAI to AI4Bharat
PadhAI was launched by Assistant Professors Mitesh M. Khapra and Pratyush Kumar of IIT Madras through One Fourth Labs — with a vision to make AI education affordable and accessible to everyone.
Their model was unique: deep-learning courses at minimal cost, designed for self-learners and working professionals. Thousands joined from across India — learning modern AI using real-world datasets. For many of us, it was the first gateway into serious machine learning.
AI4Bharat — The Expansion of Vision
Building upon the success of PadhAI, the same team founded AI4Bharat at IIT Madras — a national initiative focused on democratizing language technology for India. Their mission: “Bring parity in AI technologies across all Indian languages.”
Today, AI4Bharat’s work includes:
- Creating large-scale datasets such as IndicVoices (12,000 hours of multilingual Indian speech).
- Building open-source models: IndicBERT, IndicTrans, IndicXlit, IndicCorp.
- Developing the Bhashini platform for India’s digital-language ecosystem.
- Collaborating with Nandan Nilekani and EkStep Foundation for the Nilekani Centre at AI4Bharat.
- Publishing globally recognized research on multilingual AI and open datasets.
Their contributions are now transforming how India accesses knowledge — enabling inclusive digital services, rural communication, and AI-powered translation across 22 languages.
AI4Bharat doesn’t just build technology — it builds equity.