What will be the future of AI in India if Modi comes to power?

In today's rapidly evolving world, the chatter around artificial intelligence (AI) is getting louder by the day. India is not content to simply spectate from the sidelines as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has made technology a top priority, recognising its potential to drive significant change. With another term potentially on the horizon for Modi, this time around his focus has intensified on AI in India.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State, Ministry of Information and Technology, the ministry under which policies and regulations around AI fall says, “In the last budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had $12 billion as seed capital into research and innovation fund that will go finance, R&D and invest in the next wave of startups including deep tech, AI and things like that. He is announced India's AI mission, which will include creating the AI compute infrastructure that will be available for the next wave of AI startups in India.”

For bolstering India’s AI ecosystem, in March this year, the government has approved an allocation of over Rs 10,300 crore for the IndiaAI Mission. This substantial financial infusion, slated over the next five years, is poised to catalyse various components of the IndiaAI Mission, including pivotal initiatives like the IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre (IAIC), IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing, and Safe & Trusted AI. The overarching aim of this financial outlay is to ensure a structured implementation of the IndiaAI Mission through a public-private partnership model aimed at nurturing India’s AI innovation ecosystem. A cornerstone of this effort is the IndiaAI Compute Capacity, envisioned to erect a cutting-edge, scalable AI computing infrastructure by deploying over 10,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) through strategic public-private collaborations.

Earlier, Chandrasekhar had said, “The Prime Minister has always said that India is going to fully exploit the power of AI for the benefit of its citizens and for the expansion of its economy. The IndiaAI mission will benefit states like Kerala which, for years, missed the bus in creating a robust tech ecosystem. There is immense potential among Young Indians in Kerala and with this financial outlay will help realise their ambitions.”

Throwing light on what the tech economy will look like in the next 5-7 years, Minister Chandrasekhar added that the Prime Minister is very keen to accelerate this even further, invest in this further - both public and private capital flows into the digital space in the real economy space. The areas of focus are clearly artificial intelligence, electronics and microelectronics, telecom, high-performance computing semiconductors, cybersecurity, the future of the internet, and also things like automotive and EVs.