MANIPAL, India —Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and Google Cloud signed a MOU as a strategic collaboration to advance the adoption of artificial intelligence, cloud technologies and digital skills across education, healthcare and research.
The multi-year collaboration brings together Google Cloud’s technology, AI and cloud capabilities with MAHE’s multidisciplinary strengths across medicine, health sciences, engineering, management and research. The partnership aims to create an AI-enabled academic ecosystem that empowers students, faculty, researchers and institutional leaders with the skills, technologies and opportunities required to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world.
As part of the collaboration, Google Cloud will work with MAHE across curriculum transformation, AI and cloud skilling, faculty development, leadership enablement, student innovation and entrepreneurship. The agreement provides for educational resources, mentorship and industry insights, curriculum development in emerging technology areas, Google for Education enablement, leadership transformation initiatives, hackathons and webinars, startup incubation support, and industry-recognised Google Cloud learning and certification pathways.
Speaking about the collaboration, Dr K Sharath Rao, Vice Chancellor, MAHE, said, “Artificial Intelligence is transforming the way universities approach education, research and healthcare. Through MAGIC, MAHE is building an ecosystem that integrates agentic AI into our academic and institutional processes. Our partnership with Google India will bring global expertise and advanced AI capabilities to this effort, with a particular focus on healthcare and medical education. We look forward to developing meaningful applications that enhance learning, research and healthcare outcomes.”
The MoU signing ceremony was attended by Dr K Sharath Rao, Vice Chancellor, MAHE; Major General (Dr) Mathews Jacob, Pro Vice Chancellor, Health Sciences, MAHE; Dr Anand, Dr P Giridhar Kini, Registrar, MAHE; Venugopal, Chief Operating Officer, MAHE; Dr Ganesh Prasad, Director – IT and Digital Transformation, MAHE; and Dr Harish Kumar, Director – Industry and Academia Collaboration, MAHE, among others.
Representing Google India were Vaibhav Kumar Srivastava, Google Education and EdTech Leader, India and SAARC; Amrish Kohli, Head – Alliances, Partnerships, Public Sector and Education, Google India; Navisha Prabhakar, Regional Leader – Google for Education, South & West, Google India; and Pratiksha Anand, Customer Engineer – Google for Education, Google India.
Building AI and Cloud skills for the future
Google Cloud will support MAHE in strengthening curricula around emerging technologies including AI, advanced computing, cloud and cybersecurity, helping students develop practical, industry-relevant capabilities alongside their academic education.
Students will also have opportunities to pursue Google Cloud learning pathways and certifications across areas including cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analytics, and generative AI. Commenting on the collaboration, Vaibhav Srivastava, Head Education & Edtechs, Google Cloud said, “AI represents a profound opportunity to reimagine how we learn, teach, research and innovate. Our collaboration with MAHE brings together Google Cloud’s AI and cloud capabilities with one of India’s leading multidisciplinary academic ecosystems. Together, we aim to empower students and faculty with future-ready skills, accelerate responsible innovation, and create new opportunities to apply technology to some of society’s most important challenges.”
Empowering faculty and institutional leadership
The collaboration will extend beyond students to support faculty and university leadership. Faculty development initiatives and bootcamps will help educators strengthen their capabilities in cloud and emerging technologies, while leadership-focused transformation programs will explore how AI, generative AI and cloud technologies can enable institutional transformation.
Accelerating healthcare and research innovation
Building on MAHE’s strengths across medicine, health sciences and multidisciplinary research, the collaboration will create opportunities to explore how AI, cloud and advanced computing can support the next generation of healthcare education and research.
The partnership aims to build stronger technology capabilities among students, faculty and researchers, creating a foundation for responsible innovation and the development of solutions addressing meaningful healthcare and societal challenges.
Creating an innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem
Google Cloud and MAHE will also foster student-led innovation through hackathons, webinars, hands-on programs and startup incubation support. Google Cloud’s partner and startup ecosystem can provide technical support for prototype development and pathways to relevant Google Cloud startup programs for eligible ventures.
The broader ambition is to enable MAHE to become a reference institution for responsible AI adoption across education, healthcare and research, while developing approaches that can ultimately be scaled beyond the university ecosystem.
