India approves an outlay of $1.2 billion to strengthen Artificial Intelligence ecosystem
New Delhi: As part of the vision of ‘Making AI in India’ and ‘Making AI Work for India,’ the Indian Cabinet has approved the comprehensive national-level India Artificial Intelligence mission with a budget outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore ($1.2 billion).
Briefing media after a meeting of the union cabinet, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that India AI mission will establish a comprehensive ecosystem catalyzing AI innovation through strategic programmes and partnerships across the public and private sectors.
“In order to develop the ecosystem of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a framework of India’s AI mission has been prepared in a comprehensive manner. In December 2023, at the Global Partnership on AI summit which concluded in the national capital, the vision of India AI was put forth by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under which, several aspects including the adoption of AI on a bigger scale, providing innovators with wider opportunities, and skill development in this field, have been included,” Goyal said.
“Over 10,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) will be procured in the public-private partnership to aid a computing system for a high-end AI ecosystem, which will also be conducive to the design of an AI marketplace,” he added.
An official release said that by democratizing computing access, improving data quality, developing indigenous AI capabilities, attracting top AI talent, enabling industry collaboration, providing startup risk capital, ensuring socially impactful AI projects and bolstering ethical AI, the mission will drive responsible, inclusive growth of India’s AI ecosystem.
The cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The release said that the mission will be implemented by ‘IndiaAI’ Independent Business Division (IBD) under Digital India Corporation (DIC) and has various components like IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre, IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing and Safe & Trusted AI.
The release said IndiaAI Compute Capacity, the compute pillar, will build a high-end scalable AI computing ecosystem to cater to the increasing demands from India’s rapidly expanding AI start-ups and research ecosystem.
“The ecosystem will comprise AI compute infrastructure of 10,000 or more Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), built through public-private partnership. Further, an AI marketplace will be designed to offer AI as a service and pre-trained models to AI innovators. It will act as a one-stop solution for resources critical for AI innovation,” the release said.
IndiaAI Innovation Centre will undertake the development and deployment of indigenous Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) and domain-specific foundational models in critical sectors.
The IndiaAI Datasets Platform will streamline access to quality non-personal datasets for AI Innovation. A unified data platform will be developed to provide a one-stop solution for seamless access to non-personal datasets to Indian Startups and researchers.
The release said that IndiaAI Application Development Initiative will promote AI applications in critical sectors for the problem statements sourced from central ministries, state departments, and other institutions. The initiative will focus on developing/scaling/promoting adoption of impactful AI solutions with the potential for catalyzing large-scale socio-economic transformation.
IndiaAI FutureSkills is conceptualized to mitigate barriers to entry into AI programmes and will increase AI courses in undergraduate, master-level, and PhD programmes. Further, Data and AI Labs will be set-up in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India to impart foundational-level courses.
The IndiaAI Startup Financing pillar is conceptualized to support and accelerate deep-tech AI startups and provide them streamlined access to funding to enable futuristic AI Projects.
Recognizing the need for adequate guardrails to advance the responsible development, deployment, and adoption of AI, the Safe Trusted AI pillar will enable the implementation of Responsible AI projects including the development of indigenous tools and frameworks, self-assessment checklists for innovators, and other guidelines and governance frameworks.
The release said that the approved IndiaAI Mission will propel innovation and build domestic capacities to ensure the tech sovereignty of India.
“It will also create highly skilled employment opportunities to harness the demographic dividend of the country. IndiaAI Mission will help India demonstrate to the world how this transformative technology can be used for social good and enhance its global competitiveness,” the release said.
