When a professor at a Galgotias University booth at India’s marquee AI showcase presented a commercially available Chinese robot dog as the institution’s own creation, it did more than spark outrage. It pulled back the curtain on how exhibition space at the India AI Impact Expo had been allotted in the first place.
The private university had reportedly secured a 155-square-metre booth at Bharat Mandapam’s Hall 6, allocated on a first-come, first-served, demand-driven basis under the supervision of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous body under MeitY.
There was no formal vetting of what institutions planned to display. For that space, Galgotias paid approximately Rs 14 lakh, excluding taxes and electricity charges, at the fixed academic rate of Rs 9,000 per square metre.
What makes that figure striking is the comparison. Floor plans obtained from the organisers show that four IITs and a research institution combined received just 130 square metres. It was reportedly more than 15% less than Galgotias alone.
Here’s the breakdown: IIT Bombay and IIT Madras each got 35 sqm, IIT Kharagpur 24 sqm, IIT Gandhinagar 18 sqm, and the Airawat Research Foundation at IIT Kanpur 18 sqm. The IITs, for their part, showcased AI-enabled flood alert systems, speech synthesis tools and waste segregation methods.
An official who didn’t want to be named told a section of the media that the assumption had been that participants would self-police and not display products they had no claim over. He said the expo was planned to international standards without directing exhibitors on what they could or could not show.
Another official associated with MeitY said the government had wanted only original work on display, and that the expo was no place for an institution that had misled the public.
A business leader of an AI firm said the misrepresentation was a violation of the terms exhibitors had agreed to when signing up.
Also Read: Galgotias University Says Prof Neha Singh Not Suspended Amid AI Summit ‘Robodog’ Row https://www.vibesofindia.com/galgotias-university-says-prof-neha-singh-not-suspended-amid-ai-summit-robodog-row/
