• Member
• January 2, 2026

Next 100 Baramatis Foresight from Srijan Sanchar

Introduction

The inauguration of the Sharadchandra Pawar Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence at Baramati, articulated through Gautam Adani’s speech, marks more than a local institutional milestone. It signals a new developmental grammar for India—one where advanced technology, regional institutions, and societal trust converge outside metropolitan cores. Baramati demonstrates that future-facing capabilities such as artificial intelligence can be embedded in Tier‑2 and Tier‑3 towns without eroding their cultural or agrarian roots.

Using  a framework developed within Srijan Sanchar, this document presents a foresight-driven identification of 100 Indian towns capable of replicating the Baramati model. The aim is not imitation, but distributed transformation: creating a national lattice of capability nodes where education, technology, and local identity reinforce one another.

 

Summary of Reasons for Selection

The selected towns emerge from a synthesis of conceptual transformation, contextual realism, and emergent potential:

1. Non-metro Advantage – These towns possess stability, social cohesion, and lower systemic friction than large cities, making them ideal for long-term institution building.
2. Educational Anchors – Each town already hosts colleges, universities, polytechnics, or legacy educational trusts that can evolve into advanced capability hubs.
3. Civic and Cooperative Capital – Strong traditions of cooperatives, trusts, or local entrepreneurship provide governance capacity beyond formal administration.
4. Agrarian–Industrial Mix – A balanced economic base ensures AI and advanced technology are applied to real sectors such as agriculture, logistics, energy, health, and manufacturing.
5. Youth Aspiration Pressure – High outward migration creates urgency and readiness for local opportunity creation.
6. Replicability, Not Exceptionality – These towns are not chosen for uniqueness but for pattern similarity, ensuring scale and resilience.

Together, these factors reflect the Baramati principle: technology as an amplifier of place, not a replacement of it.

 

List of Cities (Next 100 Baramatis)

Maharashtra (15)

Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Solapur, Jalgaon, Nanded, Beed, Osmanabad (Dharashiv), Wardha, Yavatmal, Chandrapur, Hingoli, Buldhana, Washim

Gujarat (12)

Anand, Mehsana, Palanpur, Bharuch, Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Godhra, Patan, Morbi, Surendranagar

Karnataka (10)

Davanagere, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Hassan, Chitradurga, Raichur, Bidar, Kalaburagi, Kolar, Mandya

Tamil Nadu (10)

Tiruchengode, Namakkal, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Virudhunagar, Sivakasi, Karur, Perambalur

Telangana (8)

Karimnagar, Warangal, Nizamabad, Khammam, Mahbubnagar, Adilabad, Siddipet, Jagtial

Andhra Pradesh (8)

Guntur, Ongole, Nellore, Kurnool, Anantapur, Kadapa, Vizianagaram, Eluru

Rajasthan (8)

Ajmer, Bhilwara, Sikar, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur, Churu, Barmer, Banswara

Madhya Pradesh (8)

Ujjain, Ratlam, Dewas, Rewa, Satna, Chhindwara, Seoni, Khandwa

Uttar Pradesh (8)

Rae Bareli, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Jhansi, Banda, Chitrakoot, Basti, Bahraich

Bihar & Jharkhand (5)

Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Deoghar, Dumka

Punjab, Haryana & Others (5)

Sangrur, Barnala, Sirsa, Hisar, Kurukshetra

East & North-East (3)

Silchar, Tezpur, Dibrugarh

 

Ten Initiatives to Make It Happen

1. Regional AI & Applied Intelligence Centers
   Establish context-specific AI hubs focused on agriculture, logistics, energy, health, and governance rather than generic software training.
2. Industry–Academia Compacts
   Formal, long-term partnerships between local institutions and national/global industry players to ensure relevance and sustained capability building.
3. Sovereign Compute & Data Nodes
   Distributed, mid-scale data and compute infrastructure anchored in public–private trusts to avoid over-centralization.
4. Faculty & Practitioner Exchange Programs
   Rotational deployment of researchers, industry experts, and civil servants into regional institutions.
5. Youth Retention & Return Fellowships
   Incentivize local youth and diaspora professionals to build careers in their home regions.
6. Applied Research on Local Problems
   Mandate that a significant share of research funding targets region-specific challenges and opportunities.
7. Civic Leadership Councils
   Multi-stakeholder councils including educators, industry, farmers, cooperatives, and local government to steward long-term vision.
8. Skill-to-Enterprise Pipelines
   Link advanced skills directly to startup incubation, MSME modernization, and cooperative digitization.
9. Narrative & Identity Building
   Position each town as a distinct capability brand (e.g., AI for crops, logistics, textiles, health) to build pride and visibility.
10. Phased Scaling & Learning Network
    Roll out in cohorts (Top 20 → Next 30 → Remaining 50), enabling peer learning and rapid refinement of the model.

 

Next 100 Baramatis envisions a future where India’s technological rise is broad-based, culturally rooted, and sovereign by design—a future where progress is not concentrated, but shared.