Lok Sabha Question No. 300 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-11-27
Subject: Implementation of the IndiaAI Mission
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri P P Chaudhary, Dr. Vinod Kumar Bind, Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK  SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 300

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 27.11.2024

## IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INDIAAI MISSION

300:

DR. VINOD KUMAR BIND: SHRI PRATAP CHANDRA SARANGI: SHRI P P CHAUDHARY:

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:

- (a)   the timeline for implementation of the IndiaAI mission and its seven key components;
- (b)    the  specific  targets  set  for  the  development  of  AI  computing  capacity  including  the number of GPUs to be installed and the timeline for their deployment;
- (c)      the  measures  planned  to  ensure  equitable  access  to  the  AI  computing  ecosystem  and datasets platform for startups and researchers across the country;
- (d)    the  details  of  collaborations  planned  with  educational  institutions  to  implement  the IndiaAI Future Skills programme  particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities; and
- (e)    the  specific  measures  being  taken  under  the  Safe  &  Trusted  AI  pillar  to  ensure responsible AI development and address potential ethical concerns?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA)

(a) to (e): AI is an emerging field. The most reliable ranking in AI is placing India among the four countries with the highest AI capabilities and policy to use AI. Stanford University has ranked India at the top for AI skill penetration.

Github, which is community of open-source developers has also ranked India at the top with the global share of 24.19% of all projects.

Practically  on  all  parameters,  India  ranks  very  high  on  AI  Skills,  AI  development  projects and AI policy. Stanford has also ranked India among top four along-with US, China and UK in Global and National AI vibrancy ranking based on 42 indicators.

Union  Cabinet  led  by  Hon'ble  Prime  Minister  Shri  Narendra  Modi  ji  has  approved  the IndiaAI Mission on 7 th March 2024. This mission is driven by a vision to position India as a global leader in artificial intelligence by focusing on seven key pillars:

1. IndiaAI Compute: The IndiaAI compute pillar envisions building a high-end scalable AI  computing  ecosystem  comprising  AI  compute  infrastructure  of  10,000  or  more Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
2. IndiaAI Innovation Centre (IAIC): The  AI  Innovation  centre  aims  to  develop  and deploy indigenous Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) trained on India-specific data.
3. IndiaAI Datasets  Platform: The  IndiaAI  Datasets  Platform  (IDP)  seeks  to  enhance access, quality, and utilization of public sector datasets to make them AI-ready.
4. IndiaAI Application Development Initiative: The IndiaAI Application Development Initiative aims to develop, scale, and promote the adoption of impactful AI solutions to effectively tackle significant problem statements.
5. IndiaAIFutureSkills: IndiaAI FutureSkills Pillar envisions to augment the number of graduates, post-graduate and PhDs in AI domain. Further, it envisions setting up Data and  AI  Labs  in  Tier  2  and  Tier  3  cities  across  India,  to  impart  foundational-level courses in Data and AI.
6. IndiaAI Startup Financing: For providing support to AI startups at all stages.
7. Safe & Trusted AI: This pillar enables the implementation of Responsible AI projects including  the  development  of  indigenous  tools  and  frameworks,  self-assessment checklists for innovators, and other guidelines and governance frameworks.

The  implementation  of  'IndiaAI  Mission'  with  a  total  outlay  of  Rs.  10,371.92  Cr  is  for  a period of 5 years.

IndiaAI FutureSkills Pillar envisions to augment the number of graduate and post-graduate in AI  domain  by  awarding  IndiaAI  fellowship  to  B.Tech  and  M.Tech  students  of  all  the  All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) recognized engineering institutions. Further, top  50  National  Institutional  Ranking  Framework  (NIRF)  ranked  research  institutes  have been asked to take new PhD scholars under IndiaAI PhD fellowship.

A model IndiaAI Data Lab on National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT's) premises at Karkardooma Institutional Area, Delhi has been setup, which acts as a reference point for the infrastructure to be set up as a part of the initiative.

All the 36 States and Union Territories (UTs) have been requested to submit their nominated list of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs)/Polytechnics located in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities for setting  up  of  Data  Labs.  Additionally,  IndiaAI  in  collaboration  with  NIELIT  plans  to establish  27  data  labs  in  Tier  2  and  Tier  3  cities  across  the  country,  details  of  which  are placed at Annexure 1.

Under  IndiaAI  Mission  eight  Responsible  AI  Projects  have  been  selected  against  the Expression  of  Interest  (EoI)  floated  under  the  Safe  and  Trusted  AI  Pillar  of  the  IndiaAI Mission.

These projects address the need for robust guardrails to ensure the responsible development, deployment,  and  adoption  of  AI  technologies.  The  selected  projects  focus  on  developing indigenous  tools  and  frameworks  and  establishing  guidelines  for  ethical,  transparent,  and trustworthy AI. The projects cover a range of critical themes, including Machine Unlearning, Synthetic Data Generation, AI Bias Mitigation, Ethical AI Frameworks, Privacy-Enhancing Tools, Explainable AI, AI Governance Testing, and Algorithm Auditing Tools.

The Government has also constituted an Advisory Group on AI for India-specific regulatory AI  framework  under  the  chairmanship  of  PSA  to  Hon'ble  Prime  Minister  of  India  with diverse stakeholders from academia, Industry and government with an objective to address all  issues  related  to  development  of  Responsible  AI  framework  for  safe  and  trusted development and deployment of AI.

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## List of Data & AI labs planned by IndiaAI in collaboration with NIELIT in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across the country:

|   S.No. | NIELIT Centre   | State/UT          |
|---------|-----------------|-------------------|
|       1 | Gorakhpur       | Uttar Pradesh     |
|       2 | Lucknow         | Uttar Pradesh     |
|       3 | Shimla          | Himachal Pradesh  |
|       4 | Aurangabad      | Maharashtra       |
|       5 | Patna           | Bihar             |
|       6 | Buxar           | Bihar             |
|       7 | Muzaffarpur     | Bihar             |
|       8 | Kurukshetra     | Haryana           |
|       9 | Ropar           | Punjab            |
|      10 | Haridwar        | Uttarakhand       |
|      11 | Bikaner         | Rajasthan         |
|      12 | Tezpur          | Assam             |
|      13 | Bhubaneswar     | Odisha            |
|      14 | Calicut         | Kerala            |
|      15 | Guwahati        | Assam             |
|      16 | Itanagar        | Arunachal Pradesh |
|      17 | Srinagar        | J&K               |
|      18 | Jammu           | J&K               |
|      19 | Ranchi          | Jharkhand         |
|      20 | Imphal          | Manipur           |
|      21 | Gangtok         | Sikkim            |
|      22 | Agartala        | Tripura           |
|      23 | Aizawl          | Mizoram           |
|      24 | Shillong        | Meghalaya         |
|      25 | Kohima          | Nagaland          |
|      26 | Leh             | Ladakh            |
|      27 | Silchar         | Assam             |

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