The Indian Union Cabinet announced the IndiaAI mission last Thursday (7th March), approving a budget of 103.7 billion rupees (approximately $1.2 billion) to realize the vision of “Making AI in India” and “Making AI Work for India.” This includes the establishment of an AI computing infrastructure with 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs).
The IndiaAI mission will be executed by the Digital India Corporation (DIC), an independent business division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Established in 2013, DIC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to guiding and implementing India’s digital vision.
The mission aims to build a comprehensive ecosystem that drives AI innovation through collaboration between the public and private sectors. It seeks to democratize access to computational resources, improve data quality, develop indigenous AI capabilities, attract top AI talent, foster industry collaborations, provide funding for AI startups, ensure socially impactful AI projects, and support ethical AI practices, thereby promoting responsible and inclusive growth of the Indian AI ecosystem.
According to the current blueprint, the IndiaAI mission encompasses AI computing infrastructure, IndiaAI Innovation Centers, IndiaAI Dataset Platform, application development programs, future skill development, AI startup funding, and secure and reliable AI.
Regarding AI computing infrastructure, the mission plans to establish a collaborative framework between the public and private sectors to build a computing architecture with 10,000 CPUs. If the popular Nvidia A100 is adopted in the AI domain, with an approximate unit cost of $10,000, it would require $100 million in funding. The IndiaAI Innovation Centers will be responsible for developing and deploying large-scale multimodal models and foundational models in critical domains.
The IndiaAI Dataset Platform will serve as a unified data platform, simplifying access to non-personal AI datasets and providing a one-stop solution for Indian startups and researchers. Other initiatives include expanding various AI courses to foster talent, assisting AI startup funding, developing and adopting various AI solutions, and prioritizing responsible and secure AI practices.
The Indian government believes that IndiaAI will drive innovation, ensure technological sovereignty, create high-skilled employment opportunities, leverage the demographic dividend within the country, and showcase India’s competitiveness globally.
Note: The article references the date of Thursday, 7th March, which is inconsistent with the current date. Please verify the accurate date before publishing.
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