17-07-2025
With eye on AI and filmmaker Kapur part of faculty, MICA launches School of Applied Creativity
With Oscar-nominated filmmaker Shekhar Kapur as part of the faculty as the chief mentor of the institute, MICA, Ahmedabad, on Thursday launched the School of Applied Creativity with an aim to make the students future-ready by combining imagination, storytelling, media and Artificial Intelligence.
Scheduled to start in July 2026, the programme will accommodate 80-100 students in its first phase. The institute will also introduce online masterclasses in the near future.
The launch of the new school was announced during an event in Mumbai on Thursday by Tina Ambani, Chairperson, MICA Foundation of Communications Research and Education; Jaya Deshmukh, Director and CEO, MICA; and Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Partner at Catalincs and a former CMD at Cognizant India.
The MICA AI Advisory Board, comprising a panel of experts drawn from academia, technology, startups, creative industry, and public policy was also announced on Thursday.
Tina Ambani, Chairperson of the MICA Foundation for Communications Research and Education, said, 'Since being founded, MICA (formerly Mudra Institute of Communications) has always stayed ahead of the curve. We were among the first to see the deep connection between marketing, communication, and culture. We embraced digital when it was still emerging. We brought design thinking into business education long before it became a buzzword. And today, we continue that legacy, by recognising imagination as the strategic currency of the future and further strengthening our vision to empower individuals to be creative leaders in the age of imagination.'
As Ramamoorthy announced the formation of the MICA AI Advisory Board, MICA Dean Githa Heggde said, 'These experts will ensure that MICA continues to nurture creative leadership.'
AI Advisory Board members include, besides Kapur and Ramamoorthy, Niraj Nirmal, Senior Technical Programme Manager, Amazon Artificial General Intelligence; Dawn Bloxwich, Senior Director, Responsible Development and Innovation, Google DeepMind; Vivek Ganotra, Co-Founder, SentiSum, and former CCO, Salesforce UK; Maya Indira Ganesh, Associate Director (Research Partnerships), Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge; Ganga Ganapathi, India Marketing Leader, Publicis Sapient; MICA alumnus Himanshu Vashishtha, Founder and CEO, Sixth Factor Consulting; and Suhaan Mukerji, Partner, PLR Chambers, Founder Member of the Governing Board, Cloud Computing Innovation Council of India, Expert Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Public Information Infrastructure, and Innovation (2012-2014).
This Board will advise on integration of AI across the curriculum and pedagogy and development of opinion papers at the intersections of key areas.
MICA director Deshmukh said, 'The vision of the school is based on an understanding that while AI will make knowledge available to everyone, what will create value in the future is human imagination, creativity, and cultural intelligence. While AI is set to transform industries, there is an emerging need-supply gap for AI-trained professionals in India. The new school at MICA meets this need…'
