Bengaluru, Aug 21 (IANS): Microsoft Research India or MSR India on Wednesday launched its new centre focused on societal impact through Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (SCAI).

Part of the Microsoft Research (MSR) Lab in Bengaluru, this centre will focus on creating and nurturing projects that can have real-world and large-scale societal impact.

Through SCAI, MSR India will collaborate with several partners, such as academia, startups and NGOs.

"I am excited about the creation of the centre for Societal Impact through Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and I am looking forward to the efforts and collaborations ahead.

"There are so many opportunities to leverage recent advances in cloud computing and AI technologies to address long-term societal challenges spanning multiple sectors and realms, including health and wellness, education, transportation and agriculture," Eric Horvitz, Technical Fellow and Director at Microsoft Research, said in a statement.

SCAI also aims to engage with NGOs, academicians and startups through external collaborations; graduate and undergraduate students through the SCAI Fellow programme in collaboration and actively seek collaborators through calls for proposals.

"At MSR India, we have been researching the ICTD space since our inception. We see SCAI as a natural evolution of this and we will partner with like-minded collaborators to apply technology to solve some of the most pressing problems in today's world," said Sriram Rajamani, Managing Director of Microsoft Research India.