First Set Of Proposals For Building AI Models To Be Finalised In 2 Weeks

Electronics and information technology ministry (MeitY) additional secretary Abhishek Singh said that the Centre plans to finalise the “first set” of proposals for building indigenous foundational AI models in the next two weeks. 

As per Economic Times, Singh also said that the government has received more than 200 proposals from companies looking to build homegrown large language models (LLMs). This follows the Centre, in January, floating a proposal to build such an AI model. 

“There are a lot of expectations around models – (people say that) China has got DeepSeek, when will India have its own AI model?” he was quoted as saying at the Startup Mahakumbh in  New Delhi. Adding further, he said that India would need a voice-based LLM in order to reach the masses.

Singh, who is also the CEO of IndiaAI Mission, also batted for increasing funding for research projects. Noting that China and the US pump 3% of their GDP towards research and development, Singh rued that the corresponding number for India stands at just 0.5% of the GDP. 

The senior government official also noted that it is important to accelerate the pace of investments into Indian AI startups. Calling for building systems where decisions are easier to make and trust-based, Singh said, “I would actually want several Y Combinators to come up in India.”

The IndiaAI Mission CEO also emphasised the importance of strengthening partnerships between academic institutions and startups, adding that the government is working with accelerators and incubators to support AI startups. 

The Centre’s AI Push

The comments come at a time when the government has pulled all stops to spur the adoption of AI in the country and accelerate the development of AI-centric offerings. 

Last month, the government launched AIKosha, IndiaAI Compute Portal, an accelerator programme to incubate homegrown AI startups, and other offerings to foster innovation. Besides, the government is also working on acquiring 18,000 graphic processing units (GPUs) to offer AI computing to startups, researchers, students and academicians.

Meanwhile, the growing demand for business and customer-centric use cases has also spawned the rise of AI startups in the country. India is home to more than 200 GenAI startups that raised more than $1.2 Bn in funding between 2020 and 2024. 

Overall, the Indian AI ecosystem is projected to become a $17 Bn market opportunity by 2030.