Indian government allocates ₹5,000 crore for AI computing power

The Indian government has allocated about ₹5,000 crore to provide over 10,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) as part of its ₹10,000 crore-plus IndiaAI Mission, boosting the nation’s AI computing power. This announcement was made by Abhishek Singh, additional secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), at the Global IndiaAI Summit.

Singh explained that the funds are part of the ₹10,371.92 crore approved by the cabinet in March for the mission. Of this, ₹2,000 crore is designated to support Indian startups in developing indigenous AI-based solutions. Singh emphasized that a significant portion of the investment would come from private investors and venture capitalists, which will further enhance the pool of funds available for AI startups.

Government’s Initiative to Boost AI Computing Power

The government aims to subsidize access to computing power rather than owning the infrastructure outright. This approach is intended to help researchers and startups access computing resources at lower costs, thereby enabling more experimentation and scaling. Singh clarified, “We will not buy the chipsets to build public-owned infrastructure. Instead, we will encourage private investment, with the government subsidizing part of the cost of access to this compute for researchers.”

Singh stressed the importance of providing Indian startups and researchers working on AI-based solutions in fields such as healthcare, agriculture, and education with access to computing resources at a subsidized cost. He mentioned that the government would introduce checks and balances to prevent misuse of the subsidized compute infrastructure. Tenders for procuring compute capacity will be floated soon.

Subsidized Access to AI Computing Power

The government is focusing on addressing bottlenecks in the AI ecosystem, particularly those related to computing power, datasets, and skills development. Singh noted that to compete with countries like China and the US, India needs to invest in research and computing resources. While India has a strong IT talent pool, deep tech and AI require advanced research skills beyond basic coding. “We have the potential, we have the skillset, and hopefully with the investment that is happening, we will be able to catch up in due course,” Singh said.

Regarding datasets, Singh announced plans to enhance synthetic datasets used by startups with real datasets in Indian languages, aiming to build foundational AI models specific to India. In a separate panel, Kavita Bhatia, COO of IndiaAI and group coordinator in the ministry, revealed plans to release a request for proposals for the IndiaAI Datasets Platform soon. This platform will provide researchers and startups access to non-personal data from government ministries, serving as a central repository of datasets for better decision-making and AI applications.

Bhatia also mentioned that the platform would offer data annotation, labeling, and curation services. Additionally, it will integrate computing functionalities and provide models from Bhashini, MeitY’s AI model used for translation into Indian languages. This will enable solutions built in English to be easily offered in other languages.

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