Govt Likely To Review Progress Of INR 10,372 Cr India AI Mission This Week: Report

The Centre is likely to review the progress of the INR 10,372 Cr India AI Mission this week to work out various details of the programme.

Citing a senior government official, ET reported that the meeting will focus on several key aspects, including the quantum of viability gap funding required to establish sufficient compute infrastructure in the country, strategies to address the AI skill gap, and the implementation of the IndiaAI Datasets Platform planned under the scheme.

The meeting is likely to be headed by union electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

This comes a month after S Krishnan, secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said that the Centre plans to regulate AI in a way that does not deter innovation in the space. 

Back then, Krishnan mentioned that the government would adopt a similar approach to that used while framing the Digital Personal Data Protection Act for preparing AI regulations.

In March, the Union Cabinet approved the IndiaAI Mission with an allocation of INR 10,372 Cr over the next five years. The funds will foster innovation in the homegrown AI ecosystem and implement the Mission’s vision via a public-private partnership (PPP) model. 

Additionally, part of the outlay will be utilised to facilitate funding for emerging AI startups and spur innovation in the sector.

As per the Centre, the allocation will cover initiatives such as IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre (IAIC), IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing, and Safe & Trusted AI.

Among the seven pillars of the IndiaAI Mission, the government aims to provide streamlined funding support for deep-tech startups in the AI space, establish an India AI innovation center, and create an AI datasets platform.

The IndiaAI Mission comprises the following pillars:

• IndiaAI Compute Capacity: It envisions building a cutting-edge, scalable AI computing infrastructure by deploying more than 10,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) through PPP model
• IndiaAI Innovation Centre (IAIC): With this, the Centre is looking to create a leading academic institution to retain top research talent, develop and deploy indigenous large multimodal models (LMMs) and domain-specific models
• IndiaAI Datasets Platform: This platform will be developed by IndiaAI’s independent business division (IBD) and will look to enhance accessibility, quality, and utility of public sector datasets
• IndiaAI FutureSkills: This program will focus on expanding the accessibility of graduate and post-graduate AI programs as well establishing AI Labs to impart foundational-level courses in the domain

The statements come at a time when the usage of AI, especially generative AI (GenAI), is increasing rapidly across the globe. While AI is expected to solve problems across countries and sectors, there are also concerns about its misuse.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the potential for AI misuse without proper training. Prior to that, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for MeitY, announced that the draft regulatory framework for AI would be released by July this year.

The Centre also issued an advisory earlier this year, asking digital platforms to get government’s approval before launching “under-tested” or “unreliable” AI models. However, the advisory was withdrawn following criticism from the industry.

Amid all these, AI adoption is on the rise in the country and a number of AI startups have emerged over the past few years.

Yesterday, Maxim AI raised $3 Mn (around INR 25 Cr) in a seed funding round led by Elevation Capital.

Two days ago, GenAI-powered product photography startup Ayna raised $1.5 Mn (about INR 12.5 Cr) to expand its AI capabilities and scale its team.