Manipur’s AI turn : Governance, classrooms and security enter a new phase
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Dr Moirangthem Indrakumar Singh
Over the last two years, Manipur has begun to quietly re-engineer parts of its governance, education, and security apparatus around artificial intelligence, signalling that the technology is no longer a distant frontier but an emerging reality in the State.
The clearest sign of this shift came in August 2025, when the Dept of Information Technology (DIT), Government of Ma-nipur, joined hands with the National e-Governance- Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to organise a two-day-“AI for Good Gover- nance” sensitisation and capacity-building-workshop at the State Academy of Training, Imphal. Held on 21–22 August 2025, the program brought together more than 50 senior officers, including all Deputy Commissioners, to explore how AI could be woven into the fabric of State administration.
According to a Press Information Bureau release, Secretary (IT) Thokchom Kiran Kumar described AI capacity building as a foun-dational step in Manipur’s digital governance journey, highlighting concrete use cases-such as integrating AI into legal case management and GIS-based-habitation mapping of villages to enable more efficient and citizen-centric-service delivery. Coverage in The Hans India and other National outlets echoed this framing, portraying the workshop as a landmark effort to accelerate AI integration into everyday governance.
This direction is reinforced by the internal policy documents. The Department’s Annual Adminis- trative Report notes that DIT Manipur is actively engaged in “capacity building on emerging techno- logies like Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AR/VR),” underscoring that AI training has become part of the State’s institutional agenda rather than a one-off-experiment. Together, these initiatives indicate that the Government is moving from talking about AI to systematically preparing its officers to work with it
Universities in Manipur are wrestling with how AI will reshape learning, assessment, and research. On 17 January 2025, Manipur University hosted “RIST Popular Talk-62 : An interaction program on the use and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning,” designed to introduce students and faculty to the applications, potential, and concerns of AI and ML in various domains. Barely weeks later, the university’s examination and academic bodies convened a three-day workshop on assessment, evaluation, and question setting under the National Education Policy (NEP 2020). The official report from Manipur University notes that the workshop discussed the impact of AI-driven education and emphasised that teachers must become comfor- table with technology, including AI, to manage exa- minations and evaluations in a changing academic environment.
If these early workshops set the stage, a landmark moment came in November 2025, when Dhanamanjuri University (DMU) and GP Women’s College, Imphal, hosted a one-day lecture programme titled “Generative AI : Transforming the Landscape of Academic Research.” The event was organised by the College Development Council (CDC) of DMU in collaboration with the Department of Home Science and drew senior academicians, faculty, and students to the GP Women’s College Library Hall. The speakers addressed both enthusiasm and unease surrounding the use of generative AI in higher education. Dr Kh. Robindro Singh, Head of the Department of Computer Science at Manipur University, told participants that it was time for academia to “rethink emerging trends in higher education,” pointing out that the growing use of generative AI is reshaping research methodologies across disciplines. DMU Dean Prof L Hemchandra Singh described AI as a relatively new domain of learning for many and urged new entrants to academia to understand its dynamics to enhance teaching and learning capacities. CDC Director Prof H Sorojini stressed that AI had permeated every domain in the 21st century but warned researchers against depending entirely on AI to generate research materials.
(To be contd)
Over the last two years, Manipur has begun to quietly re-engineer parts of its governance, education, and security apparatus around artificial intelligence, signalling that the technology is no longer a distant frontier but an emerging reality in the State.
The clearest sign of this shift came in August 2025, when the Dept of Information Technology (DIT), Government of Ma-nipur, joined hands with the National e-Governance- Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to organise a two-day-“AI for Good Gover- nance” sensitisation and capacity-building-workshop at the State Academy of Training, Imphal. Held on 21–22 August 2025, the program brought together more than 50 senior officers, including all Deputy Commissioners, to explore how AI could be woven into the fabric of State administration.
According to a Press Information Bureau release, Secretary (IT) Thokchom Kiran Kumar described AI capacity building as a foun-dational step in Manipur’s digital governance journey, highlighting concrete use cases-such as integrating AI into legal case management and GIS-based-habitation mapping of villages to enable more efficient and citizen-centric-service delivery. Coverage in The Hans India and other National outlets echoed this framing, portraying the workshop as a landmark effort to accelerate AI integration into everyday governance.
This direction is reinforced by the internal policy documents. The Department’s Annual Adminis- trative Report notes that DIT Manipur is actively engaged in “capacity building on emerging techno- logies like Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AR/VR),” underscoring that AI training has become part of the State’s institutional agenda rather than a one-off-experiment. Together, these initiatives indicate that the Government is moving from talking about AI to systematically preparing its officers to work with it
Universities in Manipur are wrestling with how AI will reshape learning, assessment, and research. On 17 January 2025, Manipur University hosted “RIST Popular Talk-62 : An interaction program on the use and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning,” designed to introduce students and faculty to the applications, potential, and concerns of AI and ML in various domains. Barely weeks later, the university’s examination and academic bodies convened a three-day workshop on assessment, evaluation, and question setting under the National Education Policy (NEP 2020). The official report from Manipur University notes that the workshop discussed the impact of AI-driven education and emphasised that teachers must become comfor- table with technology, including AI, to manage exa- minations and evaluations in a changing academic environment.
If these early workshops set the stage, a landmark moment came in November 2025, when Dhanamanjuri University (DMU) and GP Women’s College, Imphal, hosted a one-day lecture programme titled “Generative AI : Transforming the Landscape of Academic Research.” The event was organised by the College Development Council (CDC) of DMU in collaboration with the Department of Home Science and drew senior academicians, faculty, and students to the GP Women’s College Library Hall. The speakers addressed both enthusiasm and unease surrounding the use of generative AI in higher education. Dr Kh. Robindro Singh, Head of the Department of Computer Science at Manipur University, told participants that it was time for academia to “rethink emerging trends in higher education,” pointing out that the growing use of generative AI is reshaping research methodologies across disciplines. DMU Dean Prof L Hemchandra Singh described AI as a relatively new domain of learning for many and urged new entrants to academia to understand its dynamics to enhance teaching and learning capacities. CDC Director Prof H Sorojini stressed that AI had permeated every domain in the 21st century but warned researchers against depending entirely on AI to generate research materials.
(To be contd)