Govt Will Decide Who Gets To Use Indian Datasets: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

The government will decide on criteria for granting access to Indian datasets, and such datasets will have restricted access, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology on Monday (March 13). Chandrasekhar was speaking at the IndiaAI programme’s first round of consultations, which is set to be launched after 40 days of consultations with industry stakeholders.

The programme will see the creation of a national AI data platform and open up datasets held by the government for startups, researchers and innovators.

“We need to design a national AI data platform, making data held by government organisations and the private sector available to researchers and innovation. The India dataset has a particular relevance that has not been seen elsewhere. There’s a perception that if we can do this right it will be a gold standard of datasets,” Chandrasekhar said at the event.

Post the event, the minister tweeted, “Indian #Datasets are particularly relevant in terms of diversity, which in turn would help address algorithmic biases. That’s not seen elsewhere in the world. Only Indian datasets can achieve for India & the World,” underlining the importance of Indian datasets.

The minister of state added that the IndiaAI programme would ensure that Indian datasets would help startups and companies build AI-based applications.

In response to industry stakeholders highlighting the need for more focus on fundamental and applied research on AI, the minister said, “We will create an innovation and research network with an architecture that can collaborate among universities, researchers, and industry stakeholders.”

The current state of Indian datasets, research projects on AI and ways to create AI-based use cases were among the top topics discussed at the event. The meeting also discussed the ways to incentivise the private sector to open the non-personal datasets that they hold.

The IndiaAI programme will also establish three Centres of Excellence (CoEs) for AI, as announced in the Union Budget 2023. Sitharaman then said that leading industry players will partner with these centres in conducting interdisciplinary research, developing cutting-edge applications, and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health and sustainable cities. 

At the event, Chandrasekhar suggested that CoEs should not be conventional in design and have strong participation from the private sector and startups to focus on application-focused use cases.

The IndiaAI programme forms the spearhead of an increased government focus on AI and India’s bid to assume a leadership role in the technology. 

The minister of state reiterated the government’s stance on AI, stating, “AI we see as a kinetic enabler of the digital economy. So it’s a very significant part of the $1 Tn digital economy goal our Prime Minister has set for us.”