Current Context: On 2 October 2026, IIT Ropar’s Centre of Excellence in AI for Digital Agriculture, ANNAM.AI, launched AVNI – Grow with Nature, an AI-powered web and mobile learning platform for children. It is designed to help young learners understand plants, crops, food and agriculture through everyday observation and interactive activities.
Key Points:
- Who developed it? AVNI was developed by ANNAM.AI, the Centre of Excellence in AI for Digital Agriculture at IIT Ropar, under the leadership of Dr. Mukesh Saini, Co-Project Director of ANNAM.AI.
- Purpose: The app aims to introduce children to agriculture before it becomes a formal subject of study, using their surroundings as a learning environment.
- How AI is used: Children can use AI-powered identification to explore fruits, vegetables, spices, cereals, millets and other crops around them.
- Main features: AVNI includes daily challenges, Nature Points, a digital Nature Book, Nature Gallery and Crop Compare to make agricultural learning interactive.
- Languages: The platform provides content in Hindi and English, along with audio support for younger children.
- Access and safety: AVNI is free, ad-free and privacy-focused, with a child-friendly design intended to provide a safe digital learning environment.
- Broader significance: The initiative links AI, agriculture and education and supports ANNAM.AI’s wider objective of developing accessible AI-based Digital Public Infrastructure for Indian agriculture.
Question:
Q1. AVNI – Grow with Nature, launched by IIT Ropar in 2026, was developed by which centre?a) C-DAC
b) IndiaAI Mission
c) ANNAM.AI
d) ICAR-IARI
Answer: (c) ANNAM.AI, IIT Ropar’s Centre of Excellence in AI for Digital Agriculture, developed AVNI as an AI-enabled learning platform to introduce children to plants, crops and agriculture.
