Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria on Saturday urged university vice-chancellors to integrate artificial intelligence across all disciplines in higher education. Speaking at a conference in Chandigarh, Kataria framed the technology as a force that will reshape India's economy and society, and said universities must prepare students for that shift while keeping the technology ethical and human-centric.
The conference, titled "Artificial Intelligence and Higher Education," was held at Punjab Lok Bhavan. Kataria told V-Cs that universities should move past treating AI as an engineering-only topic. He called for multidisciplinary AI education spanning medicine, agriculture, law, finance, languages, and social sciences.
"The AI revolution is changing how people learn, work, conduct research and make decisions," Kataria said. He pushed for AI labs, bridge courses, certification programs, and reskilling initiatives that produce graduates who can build AI-based solutions for agriculture, healthcare, water conservation, governance, and environmental challenges.
Technical sessions and institutional practices
The event opened with an introduction by educationist and former Guru Nanak Dev University V-C Jaspal Singh Sandhu. Sorabh Kumar Arora, director of sports for the UT administration, delivered a presentation on the "MY Bharat - Mera Yuva Bharat" initiative.
K K Aggarwal, president of South Asian University and former NBA chairman, led a technical session on the future of technical education alongside AI. Rajeev Ahuja, director of IIT Ropar, and his team demonstrated emerging AI technologies and their applications in higher education settings. Several V-Cs shared institutional practices, including Suresh Kumar of Shaheed Bhagat Singh State University, Pushpinder Singh Gill of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh Punjab Sports University, and Vinay Goyal of CGC University.
Harpal Thethi, professor and additional director at Lovely Professional University, focused on strengthening university-industry partnerships and producing industry-ready graduates. The emphasis on practical outcomes threaded through each session.
Policy alignment and risk awareness
Kataria tied the push for AI integration to existing national frameworks, including the National Education Policy 2020, the IndiaAI Mission, BharatGen, the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, and the One Nation One Subscription initiative. He said universities would be central to preparing India's youth for the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047.
He also flagged specific risks. Data privacy, cybersecurity, deepfakes, misinformation, transparency, and accountability all need attention, he said. Students must understand not only what AI can do, but also "what it should and should not do."
For educators looking to build these competencies, AI for Teachers Courses offer practical pathways to integrate AI into teaching practice. Broader coverage of classroom tools and curriculum integration is available through AI for Education resources.
Why this matters for education professionals
Kataria's directive signals that universities in Punjab will face growing pressure to embed AI across humanities, sciences, and professional programs - not just computer science departments. For faculty and administrators, that means curriculum redesign, lab investments, and faculty upskilling are likely to become near-term priorities. The governor's explicit mention of bridge courses and certification programs suggests institutions will need to create modular, stackable AI credentials that serve students from non-technical backgrounds. The message from Chandigarh is practical: build the infrastructure and the interdisciplinary programs, or risk producing graduates unprepared for the workplaces AI is already reshaping.
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