Cabinet nod for India AI mission with US$ 1.25 billion (Rs. 10,372 crore) outlay for five years.

The Union Cabinet has sanctioned an allocation of US$ 1.25 billion (Rs. 10,372 crore) over five years for the India AI Mission, with a primary objective of promoting artificial intelligence innovation through public-private partnerships. One of the key areas of focus within the mission is establishing high-end computing capacity in the country, involving the setup of over 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) through a PPP model. Additionally, an AI marketplace will be established to provide AI-as-a-service and pre-trained models to innovators. A significant portion of the total outlay, approximately US$ 541.58 million (Rs. 4,500 crore), will be dedicated to constructing compute infrastructure, while nearly US$ 240.7 million (Rs. 2,000 crore) will be allocated for supporting deep-tech startups.

The India AI mission aims to develop foundational AI models with a capacity exceeding 100 billion parameters, focusing on training these models on datasets covering major Indian languages for priority sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and governance. Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw, emphasized that the AI mission aims to democratize technology by making compute power accessible to innovators, startups, students, and educational institutions. The mission will also prioritize the acceleration of deep-tech AI startups and enhance AI skilling initiatives at undergraduate, master's, and PhD levels. Implementation will be overseen by an 'IndiaAI' Independent Business Division (IBD) under the Digital India Corporation (DIC), which will also offer early-stage financing to deep-tech AI startups.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.