The government of India is all geared up for reviewing the progress of its ambitious INR 10,372-crore India AI mission. Multipurpose in intent, the mission underlines the aspiration of positioning India as a global leader in artificial intelligence. It will now be implemented over five years in a working mode of public-private partnership.
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The India AI Mission shall create a robust ecosystem of AI, continuously bringing together startups, academia, researchers, and industry. Next-generation supercomputing infrastructure is one of the building blocks of this initiative—enabling computation with a minimum capability of more than 10,000 graphics processing units. Endeavour that the same could be utilized by all for catalyzing innovation and research in AI.
The mission will also establish IAIC as a state-of-the-art academic institution that will work towards developing anddeploying Foundational AI models. These would be indigenously large, multimodal models (LMMs) applied on domain-specific areas, particularly critical ones like healthcare, agriculture, and governance.
Of this, compute infrastructure will account for close to INR 4,500 crore and financing deep-tech startups for about INR 2,000 crore. Such funding envisages facilitating the journey of AI startups smoother from product development to its commercialization.
The mission shall also be responsible for setting up a National Data Management Office, which shall ensure improved quality and availability of data for AI applications. This office will coordinate with the different government departments to assure easy access to, and integration of, data.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal asserted that India AI Mission was designed to position India as a serious contender on the world AI map. The mission aims at triggering AI-enabled innovation across various sectors by democratizing access to advanced computing resources. This initiative is viewed as one of the critical enablers of the country’s digital economy transformation with huge potentials to make impacts on socio-economic development.
This therefore will mean transformative changes ahead in the critical sectors through the mission’s focus on developing AI applications. For instance, AI in agriculture would bring more efficient farming practices, and AI in healthcare would offer better diagnostic accuracy and recovery. It also mentioned skilling and talent development, partly increasing course availability at undergraduate, masters, Ph.D. levels in AI.
Part of the India AI infrastructure development is, therefore, located within this global competitive backdrop relating to Artificial Intelligence technology. Currently, the United States and China dominate the areas of AI computing infrastructure. To bridge this gap, it envisions creation of cutting edge AI computing infrastructure at five sites across the country, which shall effectively catalyze and transform into an AI-enabled nation.
The India AI Mission has a clear potential for transformation in the years ahead, not just in the country but globally for the future of artificial intelligence. This would mean the incubation of a collaborative ecosystem, bringing on board various stakeholders in mass progress for artificial intelligence research, innovation, and application. No doubt, this very outcome will set the future tone for the policies and investments lined up in the AI sector once the government reviews this mission.
The India AI Mission is one such landmark initiative in the country’s technology landscape. Envisioned with substantial financial outlay and a comprehensive strategy, it can propel India onto the frontline of innovations and applications in AI. Its review due within a few months by the government would, therefore, become a defining step toward ascertaining its progress and setting up a future trajectory of new developments on AI.
