Lok Sabha Question No. 5406 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-04-05
Subject: R&D in Emerging Technology
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5406

TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.04.2023

## R&D IN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

## 5406.    COL RAJYAVARDHAN RATHORE:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the expenditure incurred by the Government on research and development of emerging technologies including AI during the last five years, year-wise;
- (b) the number of research endeavours undertaken by the private institutions/individuals in India since 2014;
- (c) the details of the Government Initiatives using AI systems and their achievements along with the plan of the Government to use AI to promote sustainable and inclusive growth of rural India;
- (d) the  number  of  malicious  web  pages,  phishing  campaigns,  and  social  media  scams industrialised by AI, against which the Government took action in the last three years;
- (e) whether  the  Government  is  aware  of  rising  use  of  deepfakes  for  malicious  purposes including election manipulation and intend to formulate a policy to counter misinformation and privacy concerns around AI, if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) the details of awareness campaigns on the positive and negative impact of AI conducted by the Government during the last three years, especially in rural areas?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

- (a): The expenditure incurred by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on research and development including emerging technologies and AI during the last five years, year-wise is given below:
- (b):  MeitY does not have the information related to research endeavoursundertaken by the private institutions/individuals.
- (c):  Artificial  Intelligence  (AI)  is  considered  as  a  kinetic  enabler  of  digital  economy  and innovation ecosystem. The government has taken several policy steps for the development of infrastructure,  expertise,  skilling  and  research  in  artificial  intelligence  in  the  country. Following are the details:
- i. Government  has  published  the  National  Strategy  for  Artificial  Intelligence  in  June 2018 and proposes to develop an ecosystem for the research and adoption of Artificial Intelligence i.e. #AI for ALL.
- ii. With the vision to make India a global leader in AI space and to ensure responsible and transformational use of AI for All, MeitY has undertaken the implementation of the  'National  Program  on  Artificial  Intelligence'.  The  program  aims  to  establish  a comprehensive  step  for  leveraging  transformative  technologies  to  foster  inclusion, innovation, and adoption for social impact including rural areas.
- iii. MeitY has also established Centres of Excellence in various emerging technologies including  Artificial  Intelligence  to  explore  opportunities  in  these  specialized  fields. These centres provide start-ups with premium plug-and-play co-working spaces and access to the ecosystem.
- iv. Government  has  launched  Responsible  AI  for  Youth  2022,  on  July  30,  2022.  The Programme was designed to reach out to students from Government schools on panIndia  basis  and  provide  them  with  an  opportunity  to  become  part  of  the  skilled workforce in an inclusive manner.
- v. MeitY  along  with  CDAC  has  also  initiated  a  Proof-of-Concept  (PoC)  project  on AIRAWAT  (AI  Research,  Analytics  and  Knowledge  Dissemination  Platform)  for providing a common compute platform for AI research and knowledge assimilation. This AI Computing infrastructure will be used by all Technology  Innovation Hubs, Research  Labs,  Scientific  Communities,  Industry,  and  Start-Ups  institutions  with National Knowledge Network.
- vi. MeitY has launched the "National AI Portal" (https://indiaai.gov.in/) which serves as a  comprehensive repository  of  Artificial  Intelligence  (AI)  initiatives  in  the  country. The portal acts as a single point of reference for individuals, researchers, and industry professionals  seeking  information  about  AI  initiatives  in  India,  including  academic research, startups, policy initiatives, and other related information.
- vii. Department  of  Science  &  Technology  is  implementing  the  National  Mission  on Interdisciplinary  Cyber-Physical  Systems  (NM-ICPS)  to  promote  R&D,  Human Resource Development (HRD), Technology Development, Entrepreneurship Development, International Collaboration etc. As part of this Mission 25 Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs) in advanced technologies have been established in reputed institutes  across  the  country.  The  TIHs  at  IIT  Kharagpur,  IIIT  Hyderabad  and  IIT BHU are working towards Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

| 2017-18          | 2018-19          | 2019-20          | 2020-21          | 2021-22          |
|------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|
| Rs. 100.93 crore | Rs. 179.00 crore | Rs. 427.74 crore | Rs. 420.91 crore | Rs. 502.04 crore |

(d):    Computer  Emergency  Response  Team  (CERT-In)  has  not  received  any  incident regarding scams mobilising Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology.

(e):  Yes,  sir.  The  Government  is  cognizant  of  new  and  evolving  technologies,  including deepfake technologywhich alter the image or voice of a person to make it appear to be that of another person, or that create image or voice that appears to be that of  a person,  enabling creation of fake information.

The Information Technology Act, 2000 ('IT Act') and rules made thereunder contain several provisions for safeguarding users in the cyberspace. To ensure that Internet in India is Open, Safe  and  Trusted  and  Accountable,  the  Central  Government,  while  taking  into  account international developments in social media regulation, in exercise of powers conferred by the IT Act, has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics  Code)  Rules,  2021.  ('IT  Rules,  2021').  These  rules  cast  specific  obligation  on intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, to observe due diligence and provide that  if  they  fail  to  observe  such  due  diligence,  they  shall  no  longer  be  exempt  from  their liability under law for third-party information or data or communication link hosted by them.

MeitY has funded a research project during 2022 titled 'Design and Development of software system for detecting and flagging Deep fake Videos and Images.

(f):    Government  of  India  organized  Responsible  AI  for  Social  Empowerment  (RAISE)  in 2020, a global meeting of minds on Artificial Intelligence to drive India's vision and roadmap for social transformation, inclusion and empowerment through responsible AI.

MeitY in collaboration with industry partners, has launched 'Responsible AI for Youth' - a national program for government schools that aims to create an AI ready workforce for the future.

MeitY  in  collaboration  with  National  Association  of  Software  and  Service  Companies (NASSCOM)  has  also  initiated  'Future  Skilling  PRIME-Programme  for  Re-skilling/Upskilling of IT Manpower for Employability.

MeitY's society National  Institute of Electronics and  Information Technology  (NIELIT) is engaged in skill development of human resources in the area of Information Electronics and Communication Technology (IECT) through its wide array of degree/diploma programmes viz.  B.  Tech/M.  Tech,    MCA  ,  BCA,  PG  Diploma  in  Information  Security/Cloud Computing/Data  Science/IOT  etc,  and  skilled  based  long  term/short  terms  certificate programmes    viz.  NIELIT  O/A/B/C  level  and  courses  in  emerging  areas  like  AI  &  ML, Drone  Technology,    Cyber  Security,    Cloud  Computing  ,  Big  data,  Social  Mobile, IOT/Industry 4.0 , RPA and 3D printing, AR/VR, Meta verse  etc to equip the students with necessary  knowledgeand  skills.Since  2019,  more  than  57000  no.  of  candidates  have  been trained  in  various  programs  of  NIELIT  in  emerging  technologies  from  basic  /awareness  to advance level program covering all positive and negative aspects of technologies in human life.

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