IndiaAI Mission

Ruby Thakur
March 9, 2024
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India has made the first move to address a key shortcoming it currently has in unlocking opportunities around generative artificial intelligence (AI) — that of computing hardware. As part of the vision of ‘Making AI in India’ and ‘Making AI Work for India,’ the Union Cabinet has approved the comprehensive national-level India Artificial Intelligence mission with a budget outlay of ₹ 10,371.92 crore.

IndiaAI Mission

Why In News

India has made the first move to address a key shortcoming it currently has in unlocking opportunities around generative artificial intelligence (AI) — that of computing hardware. As part of the vision of ‘Making AI in India’ and ‘Making AI Work for India,’ the Union Cabinet has approved the comprehensive national-level India Artificial Intelligence mission with a budget outlay of ₹ 10,371.92 crore.

All You Need To Know

Briefing media after a meeting of the union cabinet, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that IndiaAI 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.

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 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.

India’s Plan For Setting Up AI Computing Capacity

Under the IndiaAI Mission, the government will look to establish a computing capacity of more than 10,000 GPUs and also help develop foundational models with a capacity of more than 100 billion parameters trained on datasets covering major Indian languages for priority sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and governance.
While the infrastructure is being set up, priority will be placed on selecting the most advanced GPUs.

The implementation of this AI compute infrastructure will be done through a public-private partnership model with 50 per cent viability gap funding. If the compute prices come down, the private entity will have to add more compute capacity within the same budgeted amount to meet increased demand. Of the total outlay, Rs 4,564 crore has been earmarked for building computing infrastructure.

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 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.

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.
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.

Conclusion

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.

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Ruby Thakur

General Studies Lecturer SSBCrackExams, BSc In PCM, Trained Students For State Services Exams. Expertise in Geography ,Polity & Current Affairs. Love Travelling.