Govt To Support Development Of AI Chips Under Semicon India Initiative: MoS MeitY

The Centre will support the development of artificial intelligence (AI) chips under the Indian Semiconductor Mission (ISM), Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Friday (October 13). 

Speaking at an event in New Delhi, the MoS said the government will also push for the development of a unified platform for datasets and a public-private partnership to create substantial computing capacity for startups and researchers. 

“… there will be the India AI Compute Platform, a public-private partnership project that will create substantial GPU (graphics processing unit) capacity for our startups and researchers. In addition to skilling, India AI will also support the development of AI chips in partnership with the Semicon India program,” the minister said. 

The comments came as seven working groups of MeitY submitted the first edition of IndiaAI report to the MoS on October 13. As per an official statement, the report will serve as a guiding roadmap for the development of the country’s AI ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Chandrasekhar also noted that the report will be the kinetic enabler of a $1 Tn digital economy.

In the report, the working groups have detailed the operational aspects of establishing the proposed centres of excellence (CoEs) and developing the institutional framework on governing data collection, management, processing and storage by the National Data Management Office (NDMO). 

The report has also recommended ways to leverage demographic dividend to increase penetration of AI skills in the country and shore up AI compute infrastructure via PPPs. It has also pitched for a design linked incentive (DLI) scheme to offer support and incentivise domestic startups and companies. 

The developments came on the same day as the MoS released the draft National Strategy on Robotics for public feedback. The draft will be open for comments till October 31. 

The policy aims to nurture the development of robotics technology in the country and drive the country’s global leadership in four strategic areas — manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare and national security. 

“The national strategy on robotics policy will present significant opportunities for the manufacturing sector, Industry 4.0 and cyber-physical systems, among others. It has the potential to create a lot of impact,” said MoS Chandrasekhar.

The Centre has proposed the establishment of a Robotics Innovation Unit (RIU) as an agile and independent agency to facilitate the implementation of the strategy. The unit will also aim to nurture the homegrown robotics startup and research ecosystem.

The development comes at a time when the government has left no stone unturned to push AI across multiple arms of the government. The National Payments Corporation of India is looking to integrate state-backed AI-translation platform, BHASHa INterface for India (Bhashini), to facilitate digital payments. 

MeitY will also host the maiden edition of the Global IndiaAI 2023 summit later this month. The event is expected to pitch India as an attractive destination for AI startups and related investment opportunities.