Cross-functional education is the need of the hour to keep up with technological advancements like artificial intelligence (AI), said Kumar Mangalam Birla, the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, on Sunday.
He explained that cross-functional curricula meant pursuing multiple courses at different campuses simultaneously. “I think the need of the hour is more cross-functional education. The curriculum of many subjects needs to be revised or supplemented with courses that are transeducational,” Birla said in his reply to Mint’s question at a press conference held at Birla Institute of Technological Sciences (BITS), Pilani.
Birla, the chancellor of BITS Pilani, visited the campus of the engineering college after over a decade to anchor their convocation for the 2025 batch.
He highlighted the institute’s degree programme, which allows one to pursue engineering at BITS Pilani and a master’s in management from BITS School of Management (BITSoM) simultaneously. “I think that is the new focus area, and that is how the real world works,” he said.
AI+ campus
Birla also announced a ₹1,000 crore investment to set up a campus in Amravati, Andhra Pradesh, specializing in AI and other advanced technologies. Birla anticipates that this “AI+ campus” will enrol its first batch by 2027.
“The focus of this campus will be to prepare Indian talent for leadership in the defining technologies of our time. This future-ready campus will specialize in AI, data science, robotics, computational linguistics, and cyber-physical systems,” he said.
“The undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes have been designed with global best practices in mind, offering industry internships, joint PhDs with top international universities, and hybrid twinning models that give students true international exposure,” he added.
Besides this new campus, Birla made two other critical announcements, one pertaining to the expansion of its campuses—Pilani, Hyderabad, and Goa—focused on building “capacity at scale”, named ‘Project Vistaar’. Under this, an investment of over ₹1,200 crore is dedicated to constructing new academic blocks, cutting-edge research facilities, student hostels, and faculty residences, alongside a broad range of amenities designed to cultivate a holistic, future-ready learning environment.
Birla aims to expand student capacity at these three campuses from 16,000 to 21,000 over the next five years, with the total student strength across all BITS campuses projected to grow from over 18,700 to approximately 26,000 within the same period.
He also announced the launch of BITS Pilani Digital, an edtech platform that will offer 32 programmes, including 11 degree and 21 certificate courses, in the next five years. The platform aims to reach over 100,000 learners from high schoolers to undergraduates to college students to working professionals.
“While expanding campuses is vital, India’s education challenge also demands scale, flexibility, and inclusivity. India is one of the world’s youngest nations. Nearly 65% of our population is under 35, but the stark reality is that too many of our bright, ambitious minds still lack access to the kind of high-quality, flexible education that transforms lives,” Birla said, emphasising the importance of this edtech programme.