New Delhi: Addressing the Galgotias University controversy at the recent AI Impact Summit, industrialist Harsh Goenka posted a scathing remark about X that has since sparked widespread debate online.
Referring to the university’s presence at the summit, Goenka drew a comparison with an earlier academic claim associated with the institution and expressed sympathy for its students.
“Galgotias, now in bot news, is the same university whose faculty once published a paper suggesting thali and bell vibrations could kill coronavirus. My heart goes out to the students of this university who will be ashamed to say where they study,” industrialist Harsh Goenka tweeted.
Check out the post here:
The post quickly went viral, prompting a flood of reactions from users – many of whom focused on the challenges facing students studying at private institutions amid increasing scrutiny.
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One user advised students not to tie their self-worth to an institution’s reputation, writing: “Engineers – stop being ashamed of your university. Make a name bigger than your college. Crush competitive programming. Climb the ranks of Codeforces, LeetCode, CodeChef & HackerRank. Submit projects to GitHub. Contribute to open source. > Titles from papers.”
Another user highlighted the socio-economic reality behind private education choices. “You know there are children from agrarian backgrounds, their parents have bet everything because the architecture is so well done, but imagine their plight, getting a job in an already saturated market is so terrible!”
Some reactions were more critical of the institution itself.
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“Fraud by Galgotias has paved the way for a framework to prevent such incorrect and fraudulent claims from being made in prestigious public forums,” wrote a fourth.
“Publicity may build visibility, but credibility builds reputation. Universities must guard this carefully,” wrote a fifth.
Which caused controversy
The row erupted after Galgotias University showcased a robotic dog named Orion at an AI summit, claiming it was developed in-house by its Center of Excellence. Social media users later identified the robot as the Unitree Go2, a multi-million rupee commercially available Chinese product.
The university also claimed to have developed a football drone from scratch, which was similarly labeled by online users as an imported commercial model.
As criticism mounted, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology reportedly asked the university to vacate its stall at the Bharat Mandapam. Authorities later turned off the power to the display after the demand was not immediately met.
University response and apology
Initially, the university said it never claimed to have built the robot and said the global technology was being used purely for teaching purposes. It later issued a formal apology, attributing the dispute to miscommunication by an employee.
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“We at Galgotias University want to deeply apologize for the confusion that arose at the recent Al Summit. One of our representatives manning the pavilion was misinformed. She was unaware of the technical origins of the product and in her excitement to be on camera gave factually incorrect information even though she was not authorized to speak to the press,” it said.
The episode reignited conversations about transparency, trust and accountability at major tech shows, especially those involving educational institutions.