Lok Sabha Question No. 221 (STARRED), answered on 2024-12-11
Subject: AI Governance and Development
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri Vishaldada Prakashbapu Patil, Adv. Adoor Prakash

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. *221

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 11.12.2024

## AI GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

## *221. SHRI VISHALDADA PRAKASHBAPU PATIL: ADV. ADOOR PRAKASH:

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

- (a)  the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  upskill  the  workforce  in  Artificial Intelligence  (AI)  governance  and  development  to  address  challenges  posed  by  rapid  AI adoption including potential job displacement;
- (b)  whether  the  AI  Ethical  Certification  Project  and  Privacy  Enhancing  Strategy  Project under the Ministry has established measurable objectives and timelines and if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the details of international collaborations or partnerships undertaken by the Government to co-develop ethical AI governance frameworks and standards?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a) to (c):   A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN THE REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *221 FOR 11.12.2024 REGARDING  AI GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

……..

(a): The Government of India emphasizes the concept of 'AI for All,' aligning with the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision to democratise use of technology. This initiative aims to ensure that AI benefits all sectors of society, driving innovation and growth.

India is regarded as the skills capital in technology and Artificial Intelligence. The most reliable ranking  in  AI  is  placing  India  among  the  top  countries  with  AI  Skills,  AI  capabilities,  and policies to use AI. Stanford University has ranked India among the top four countries along with the  US,  China,  and  the  UK  in  the  Global  and  National  AI  vibrancy  ranking  based  on  42 indicators.  GitHub,  which  is  community  of  developers  has  ranked  India  at  the  top  with  the global share of 24% of all projects.

Government is committed to harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the good of our  people  in  sectors  like  healthcare,  agriculture  and  education.  At  the  same  time,  the Government is cognizant of the risks posed by AI.

The advent of Artificial Intelligence is being used as a tool for augmenting capability. AI will result in job creation in various streams like data science, data curation, etc. India has a distinct advantage globally when it comes to having a workforce trained in Artificial Intelligence. This will require reskilling and upskilling, for which the Government has taken various initiatives:

- i. FutureSkills  PRIME: MeitY and NASSCOM  are  collaborating to upskill the professionals through FutureSkills Prime programme. FutureSkills PRIME is a platform comprising various online skills providers to provide digital skills training on a national scale  in  online  mode.  The  programme  is  aimed  at  re-skilling/  up-skilling  of IT professionals in 10 new/emerging technologies namely Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics,  Robotic  Process  Automation,  Additive  Manufacturing/  3D  Printing,  Cloud Computing,  Social  &  Mobile,  Cyber  Security,  Augmented/Virtual  Reality,  Internet  of Things and Blockchain. Besides the online mode, 40 centres of CDAC and NIELIT are also  implementing  the  Blended  Learning  mode,  Training  of  Trainers,  and  Government Official training programmes.

So far, 8.65 Lakh candidates have enrolled/trained in various courses including 3.20 Lakh Candidates in AI/Big Data Analytics technologies. A total of 172 courses are available in the  AI/Big  Data  Analytics  on  the  FutureSkills  PRIME  platform.  In  addition,  CDAC/NIELIT Centres have trained 2,879 Government Officials and Trainers in AI under the programme.

- ii. IndiaAI  Mission: Union  Cabinet  led  by  Hon'ble  Prime  Minister  has  approved  the IndiaAI  Mission  on  7 th March  2024,  a  strategic  initiative  to  establish  a  robust  and inclusive AI ecosystem that aligns with the country's development goals. This mission is driven by a vision to position India as a global leader in artificial intelligence by focusing on seven foundational pillars.

The  Mission  is  being  implemented  by  IndiaAI  Independent  Business  Division  (IBD) under Digital  India  Corporation,  and  key  actions  undertaken  for  implementation  of  the IndiaAI Mission are as below:

## IndiaAI Compute:

-  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).
-  Applications were invited for empanelment of agenciesfor providing AI services on Cloud on 16th August 2024. The bid submission was closed on 28th November 2024 and 19 bidders have submitted bids in response to the request.

## IndiaAI FutureSkills:

-  IndiaAI FutureSkills Pillar envisions to augment the number of graduates, postgraduate  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.
-  IndiaAI  fellowship are being awarded  annually to 400 B.Tech and 500 M.Tech students working in AI domain from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) recognized engineering institutions.
-  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 in the National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT's), Delhi has been set up, which acts as a reference point for the infrastructure to be set up in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities 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 Appendix I.

## IndiaAI Startup Financing:

-  IndiaAI  Startup  Financing  pillar  is  to  provide  support  to  AI  startups  at  all stages. Multiple rounds of stakeholder consultations have been held to deliberate  on  the  scheme  for  supporting  AI  Startups  at  Pre-Seed,  Seed  and Growth stage.

## IndiaAI Innovation Centre:

-  IndiaAI  Innovation  centre  aims  to  develop  and  deploy  indigenous  Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) trained on India-specific data
-  Multiple  rounds  of  stakeholder  consultations  have  been  held  to  deliberate  on the  IndiaAI's  strategy  for  building  indigenous  Large  Multi-model  Models (LMMs).

## IndiaAI Datasets Platform:

-  The  IndiaAI  Datasets  Platform  (IDP)  seeks  to  enhance  access,  quality,  and utilization of public sector datasets to make them AI-ready.
-  A comprehensive plan has been created for developing platform and a feature list has been finalized after evaluating other prominent dataset platforms such as Hugging Face, Dubai Pulse etc.

## IndiaAI Applications Development Initiative:

-  IndiaAI Application Development  Initiative aims  to develop, scale,  and promote the adoption of impactful AI solutions to effectively tackle significant problem statements.
-  IndiaAI  Innovation  challenge  was  launched  on  13th  August  2024  for  the themes  of  healthcare,  agriculture,  improved  governance,  climate  change  & disaster  management  and  assistive  technologies  for  learning  disabilities.  The Innovation  Challenge  was  open  to  Indian  innovators,  startups,  non-profits, students, academic/R&D  organizations, and companies. A  total of 900 applications have been received across the five focus areas by the deadline of 30th September.
-  CyberGuard AI Hackathon was launched on 17th October 2024 for Cybercrime prevention  in  collaboration  with  the  Indian  Cybercrime  Coordination  Centre (I4C) and in response 263 responses have been received.

## 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.
-  Eight Responsible AI Projects have been selected to address the need for robust guardrails to ensure the responsible development, deployment, and adoption of AI  technologies.  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 details of the selected projects are given at Appendix II.
- iii. Visvesvaraya  PhD  Scheme: The  Visvesvaraya  PhD  Scheme  aims  to  enhance  the number  of  PhDs  in  the  Electronics  System  Design  &  Manufacturing  (ESDM)  and IT/IT  Enabled  Services  (IT/ITES)  sectors,  including  Artificial  Intelligence,  in  the country.  In Phase I of the scheme, 904 PhD candidates successfully completed their PhDs and 74 PhD candidates submitted theses or nearing completion of their PhDs. Phase II of the scheme has been launched to support 1,000 full-time and 150 part-time PhD candidates over a period of nine years. Under this phase, institutions have been allocated 600 full-time and 90 part-time PhD seats.
- iv. YUVAi  -  Youth  for  Unnati  and  Vikas  with  AI: MeitY  in  collaboration  with  its partners,  has  launched  'YUVAi:  Youth  for  Unnati  and  Vikas  with  AI'-  A  National Programme for School Students with the objective of enabling school students from classes  8 th to  12 th with  AI  tech  and  social  skills  in  an  inclusive  manner.  The programme will provide a platform for youth to learn and apply AI skills in 8 thematic areas- Krishi, Aarogya, Shiksha, Paryavaran, Parivahan, Grameen Vikas, Smart Cities and Vidhi aur Nyaay.

More  than  9,000  students  from  31  states  and  Union  Territories  benefited  from  the program,  along  with  over  200  teachers.  Over  1,000  students  participated    in    the online   orientation   sessions,  and  750 + ideas   were submitted. The top 10 winners were announced and felicitated during the GPAI Summit in 2023.

(b): The  'Safe  &  Trusted'  pillar  within  the  IndiaAI  Mission  aims  to  encourage  the adoption of AI in a responsible manner with the principles of safety, security, transparency, and privacy embedded in the design of AI technology to mitigate the AI risks, placing the idea of 'AI for All' at its very core.

Under  this  Pillar,  two  Responsible  AI  Projects  have  been  selected  under  the  themes  'Al Ethical  Certification'  and  'Privacy  Enhancing  Strategy'  to  address  the  need  for  robust guardrails to ensure the responsible development, deployment, and adoption of AI technologies.

The  project  selected  under  the  theme  'Al  Ethical  Certification'  is  "Nishpaksh:  Tools  for assessing the fairness of AI models". The objective of the project is to develop a platform consisting of tools to assess the fairness of models in accordance with the fairness standard released by Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC). The duration of the project is 2 years.

The  project  selected  under  the  theme  'Privacy  Enhancing  Strategy'  is  "Robust  Privacyof the project is 2 years.

Preserving  Machine  Learning  Models".  The  objective  of  the  project  is  to  develop  learning algorithms that work well even in environments that are vulnerable to attacks. The duration (c): India  is  a  founding  member  of  the  Global  Partnership  on  Artificial  Intelligence (GPAI)  and  has  contributed  significantly  to  its  vision  of  advancing  Safe,  Secure,  and Trustworthy AI globally. India was elected as  the  Incoming Council Chair for 2023,  Lead Chair for 2024, and Outgoing Chair for 2025. As the Incoming Council Chair, India hosted the  Annual  GPAI  Summit  in  December,  2023  which  was  a  landmark  event  attended  by 22000+ participants. As Lead Chair, India hosted the "Global India AI Summit' and midyear GPAI Summit in July 2024, in New Delhi where the 6th GPAI Ministerial Council was held and the event was attended by 12000+ participants. Under the GPAI New Delhi Declaration 2024, GPAI members came to a consensus about the future of the GPAI and announced a renewed vision for GPAI through an integrated partnership with OECD bringing together all current OECD members & GPAI countries on equal footing, under the GPAI brand. The G20 New Delhi Leader's Declaration commits to pursue a pro-innovation regulatory/governance approach that  maximizes the benefits and considers the risks associated with the use of AI. India is also a signatory to São Luís Declaration adopted in Brazil in 2024, which also highlights the need for global cooperation for AI governance and encourages G20 members to advance and reinforce interoperability between AI governance frameworks. Further,  India  has  actively  participated  in  the  discussions  pertaining  to  a  United  Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on AI for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and co-sponsored that resolution. India is a member of the Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group which involves a collaborative effort  by  member  countries  to  develop  a  Comprehensive  Policy  Framework  for  Artificial Intelligence that includes guiding principles and code of conduct aimed at promoting the safe, secure and trustworthy advanced AI systems. India is also a signatory to the UN GDC adopted on September 22, 2024. Grounded in human rights and international law, the GDC includes commitments on connectivity, online safety, and AI governance through the establishment of a multidisciplinary Independent International Scientific  Panel  on  AI  and  a  Global  Dialogue  on  AI  governance  in  the  margins  of  UN

conferences and meetings.

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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             |

## APPENDIX II

## The details of the selected projects under 'Safe & Trusted AI' Pillar are as under:

| NAME OF THE THEME                  | SELECTED APPLICANT                                                                | TITLE OF THE PROJECT                                                                                                                                                              |
|------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Machine Unlearning                 | IIT Jodhpur                                                                       | Machine Unlearning in Generative Foundation Models                                                                                                                                |
| Synthetic Data Generation          | IIT Roorkee                                                                       | Design and Development of Method for Generating Synthetic Data for Mitigating Bias in Datasets; and Framework for Mitigating Bias in Machine Learning Pipeline for Responsible AI |
| AI Bias Mitigation Strategy        | National Institute of Technology Raipur                                           | Development of Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Bias Mitigation in Health Care Systems                                                                                     |
| Explainable AI Framework           | DIAT Pune and Mindgraph Technology Pvt. Ltd.                                      | Enabling Explainable and Privacy Preserving AI for Security                                                                                                                       |
| Privacy Enhancing Strategy         | IIT Delhi, IIIT Delhi, IIT Dharwad and Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC) | Robust Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning Models                                                                                                                                 |
| AI Ethical Certification Framework | IIIT Delhi and Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC)                         | Tools for assessing fairness of AI model                                                                                                                                          |
| AI Algorithm Auditing Tool         | Civic Data Labs                                                                   | ParakhAI - An open-source framework and toolkit for Participatory Algorithmic Auditing                                                                                            |
| AI Governance Testing Framework    | Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC)         | Track-LLM, Transparency, Risk Assessment, Context & Knowledge for Large Language Models                                                                                           |

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