The Indian government approved the INR103.7192 billion AI Mission to foster India's Artificial Intelligence (AI) ecosystem and catch up with leading countries in AI.
According to the Press Information Bureau, the Union Cabinet of India approved the AI Mission, with an outlay of InR103.7192 billion over five years. The AI Mission will be implemented by the "IndiaAI" Independent Business Division under Digital India Corporation.
According to the document, the Mission aims to create an all-encompassing ecosystem that accelerates AI innovation through strategic initiatives and collaborations spanning the public and private sectors by democratizing access to computing, enhancing the quality of data, fostering the development of indigenous AI capabilities, attracting top talent in AI, facilitating industry partnerships, offering startup funding, promoting socially impactful AI endeavors, and strengthening ethical AI practices. AI Mission endeavors to foster responsible and inclusive growth within India's AI landscape.
The AI Mission is composed of seven components, including IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Center, IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI Future Skills, IndiaAI Startup Financing, and Safe & Trusted AI. The AI Mission stated that India Compute Capacity will comprise an AI compute infrastructure of more than 10,000 GPUs and will provide an AI marketplace offered as AI as a service and pre-trained models.
Mint quoted Piyush Goyal, minister of Commerce of India, saying that a multi-faceted comprehensive framework has been created. The seven key components will support and accelerate deep-tech AI startups and provide them with streamlined access to funding to enable futuristic AI projects. Furthermore, Mint reported that India will create two or three innovation centers to develop domain-specific Large Language Models (LLMs).
The Republic World quoted Yogendra Goyal, chief technology officer at Kuhoo Fintech, saying that the AI era is similar to when the computer was invented, adding that the move by the government will help startups and SMEs to work and create the right set of innovations.
According to the Republic World, about 3,000 deep-tech startups are currently operating in India, with less than 20% of them able to secure proper financial support.
