Lok Sabha Question No. 3071 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-19
Subject: AI Research and Innovation Enhancement
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri Baijayant Panda

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION. NO. 3071

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 19.03.2025

## AI RESEARCH AND INNOVATION ENHANCEMENT

## 3071. SHRI BAIJAYANT PANDA:

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

- (a) the steps taken by the Government to promote and enhance AI research and innovation across the country;
- (b) whether the Government has identified any priority areas for AI research and innovation;
- (c) if so, the names of these areas along with the rationale for their selection;
- (d) whether the Government has achieved success in advancing AI research and innovation; and  (e)  if  so,  the  details  of  notable  initiatives  or  collaborations  and  if  not,  the  reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (e): 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  Agriculture,  Healthcare,  Education,  Railways,  Governance  & Administration,  Earth  Science,  Energy  &  Power,  Rural  Development  &  Panchayati  Raj, Transportation and Law & Justice.

The government's approach focuses on leveraging AI for economic growth and development while fostering a robust AI ecosystem. In this regard, 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.

## 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).
-  Towards this, IndiaAI Independent Business Division (IBD) published a Request for Empanelment (RFE) on August 16, 2024, to empanel AI services on cloud including GPUs. 19 bidders had submitted proposals to empanel their AI cloud services, out of which 10 bidders have been empaneled.
-  Against the target of 10,000 GPUs outlined in the IndiaAI compute pillar, empaneled bidders have offered 14,517 GPUs at an average rate of Rs. 115 per GPU hour with  Government support of upto 40% .  Further,  an  IndiaAI  Compute  Portal  has been developed for accessing and leveraging the empaneled AI services on cloud.

## 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  Fellowships  are  being  offered  to  students  pursuing  relevant  undergraduate and postgraduate programs at Private / Centrally Funded Technical Institutes (CFTI) under the Government of India or must be recognized either by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) / National Board of Accreditation (NBA) / National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) of the University Grants Commission (UGC) or as per the extant norms. Till date, 150 UG students, 48 PG students and 3 PhD scholars have been selected for the IndiaAI Fellowship.
-  IndiaAI  has  established  IndiaAI  Data  Lab  in  National  Institute  of  Electronics  & Information Technology (NIELIT's) Delhi centre and & ICET, Nagaland. 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 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.
-  In  collaboration  with  STATION  F  and  HEC  Paris,  the  IndiaAI  Mission  has  been launched an acceleration program for Indian AI startups. This four-month immersive program  (1  month  online,  3  months  onsite  at  STATION  F  in  Paris)  at  the  world's largest startup campus will provide 10 selected AI startups with access to mentorship, networking,  and  global  market  expansion  opportunities  in  Europe.  A  call  for applications has been announced at the event.

## IndiaAI Innovation Centre:

-  IndiaAI Innovation centre aims to develop and deploy indigenous Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) trained on India-specific data
-  IndiaAI had launched a Call for Proposals inviting proposals from startups, researchers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate on building state-of-the-art foundational AI models trained on Indian datasets. A total of 67 proposals till February 15 aimed at building India's foundation models, with contributions from both established startups and new teams of researchers & academia.

## IndiaAI Datasets Platform:

-  The IndiaAI Datasets Platform (IDP) seeks to enhance access, quality, and utilization of public sector datasets to make them AI-ready.
-  Government has launched AIKosh: IndiaAI Datasets Platform. AIKosh is a secured platform  that  provides  a  repository  of  datasets,  models  and  use  cases  to  enable  AI innovation. It also features AI sandbox capabilities through an integrated development environment along with tools and tutorials.

## 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 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. Out these, the 30 shortlisted AI solutions under the identified  sectors  across  three  stages  of  maturity:  Idea,  Prototype,  and  Existing Solutions. The details of shortlisted AI solutions is given at Annexure II
-  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, and the top 20 shortlisted teams were invited  to  a  physical  hackathon  at  I4C.  From  these,  the  top  three  teams  were selected for pilot testing of their solutions at I4C.

## 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 Annexure III.
-  Further,  IndiaAI  invited  Expressions  of  Interest  from  individuals  and  organizations for the development of tools in areas such as Watermarking & Labelling, Ethical AI Frameworks,  AI  Risk  Assessment  &  Management,  Stress  Testing  Tools,  and Deepfake Detection Tools.

******

## 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             |

Annexure II

The details of shortlisted AI solution under IndiaAI Application Development Initiative are as under:

|   Sl.No. | Name of the Solution                                                                                 | Solution Description                                                                                                                                   | Stage    | Team Name                               | Theme       |
|----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|-----------------------------------------|-------------|
|        1 | Promoting regenerative agriculture practices for a sustainable future using AI                       | In-house developedMRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) technology designed to ensure the integrity and quality of generated carbon credits.  | Solution | Varaha ClimateAG Private Limited        | Agriculture |
|        2 | Krishi Sah'AI'yak - Farming Co-pilot                                                                 | AI-powered conversational co- pilot to provide personalized advisory to farmers in Indic languages                                                     | Solution | Samagra Development Associates Pvt. Ltd | Agriculture |
|        3 | Kadalcompass - We Amplify the voice of water using Hydro- AI,Underwater com,IoUT with Sensor Network | 5G-enabled device that transforms fishing practices using AI, IoUT, and advanced communication technologies                                            | Solution | Innogle Technologies Pvt LTD            | Agriculture |
|        4 | KissanCopilot Multilingual Multimodal personalized AI Assistant for small holder farmers             | Powered by Dhenu's vertical LLM for agriculture, provides personalized agricultural advisory services to smallholder farmers.                          | Solution | Titodi Infotech Pvt Ltd                 | Agriculture |
|        5 | Rapid, chemical- free soil testing solution using NIR Spectroscopy& AI/ML models                     | End-to-end soil testing approach leverages an offline app, AI- powered spectral device, and ML models to deliver timely, chemical- free soil analysis. | Solution | Neoperk Technologies                    | Agriculture |
|        6 | AI deep-tech driven quality assessment of Maize                                                      | SAAS platform to provide objective quality assessment of maize including price estimation& sales pipelining.                                           | Solution | RootsGoods (OPC) Pvt. Ltd.              | Agriculture |
|        7 | AI-Driven Live Fish Logistics and Mortality Reduction in                                             | AI-driven solution that optimizes aquaculture operations                                                                                               | Solution | Shuvoneel Ras System Pvt. Ltd.          | Agriculture |

|    | Aquaculture                                                                             |                                                                                                                                                                              |            |                                                                 |             |
|----|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|-------------|
|  8 | QScan                                                                                   | AI-powered IoT solution that captures critical data throughout the fresh produce lifecycle, providing real-time analysis of food quality and actionable insights to sellers. | ⁠Prototype | Qzense Labs Pvt Ltd                                             | Agriculture |
|  9 | Heatwave Resilience: Integrating AI- based Advanced Forecasting for Extreme Heat Events | Integrates AI- based climate forecasting with health data to develop a targeted risk classification system for heat- health impacts                                          | Idea       | I-Hub for Robotics and Autonomous Systems Innovation Foundation | Climate     |
| 10 | Multi-Hazard Susceptibility Mapping                                                     | hazard management system topredict Landslides, Debris Flows and Flash Floods                                                                                                 | ⁠Prototype | Jarbits Pvt Ltd                                                 | Climate     |
| 11 | DeepFlood: Rapid flood inundation mapping using Vision Transformers and Satellite Data  | Advanced flood inundation mapping tool using SAR data and deep learning models for real-time, automated flood detection                                                      | ⁠Prototype | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi                            | Climate     |
| 12 | ⁠Moskeet: Climate impact on mosquito-borne diseases                                     | AI-powered platform integrates real-time climate data with mosquito tracking to predict and prevent disease outbreaks.                                                       | ⁠Prototype | Moskeet AI                                                      | Climate     |
| 13 | End to End AI Cloud Platform for Radiology Diagnosis                                    | AI cloud platform for radiology diagnosis, integrating innovative technologies such as CV, GenAI, NLP, Dicom, mobile, and cloud computing                                    | Solution   | Endimension Technology Pvt. Ltd.                                | Healthcare  |

|   14 | NIDAAN (iNtegrated lung health screening& tuberculosIs Detection through Ai At National scale)    | qXR, an advanced AI tool for interpreting chest X-rays (CXR), detects &localizes 30+ findings.                                                                                                   | Solution   | Qure.ai Technologies Pvt. Ltd.   | Healthcare   |
|------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|----------------------------------|--------------|
|   15 | Impactful AI solution, preventing preventable blindness, for socio-economic                       | early detection of vision threatening retinal abnormalities                                                                                                                                      | Solution   | Artelus                          | Healthcare   |
|   16 | AI Powered Wearable Technology for Detection & Diagnosis of Musculoskeletal                       | AI Enabled Hardware Platform for Joint Pain Diagnostics and Rehabilitation Segments of                                                                                                           | Solution   | Startoon Labs Private Limited    | Healthcare   |
|   17 | Joint Health Pain. VoxelBox                                                                       | Healthcare Neuro-informatics platform that allows to map the functional maps / connectomics of the human brain                                                                                   | Prototype  | BrainSight Technology Pvt Ltd    | Healthcare   |
|   18 | Development of Ocellux: An AI- Based Solution for Enhanced Early Diabetic Eye Screening in INDIA. | Portable, affordable and highly accessible retina imaging device powered by AI for early detection of eye diseases like Diabetic Retinopathy,AMD &Glaucoma                                       | Prototype  | Anself Dynamics Pvt. Ltd.        | Healthcare   |
|   19 | Revolutionizing healthcare using doctor-led AI                                                    | AI-powered personal doctor available 24x7 and free of cost, designed to assist people when they are sick, monitor their health through wearables, and act as a health coach to prevent diseases. | Prototype  | Jivi Health Pvt. Ltd.            | Healthcare   |
|   20 | AI/ML enabled MafPro device platform for cancer staging, localization, and margins.               | MafPro handheld detector provides a radiation-free, non- invasive, safe and cost-effective solution that can reliably detect and adequately                                                      | Prototype  | SIAMAF Healthcare                | Healthcare   |

|    |                                                                                    | evaluate metastases in lymph nodes using AI/ML based algorithms                                                                                 |            |                                             |                       |
|----|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|---------------------------------------------|-----------------------|
| 21 | Readabled (Online Dyslexia Training)                                               | web-based application designed to help children with dyslexia improve phonetic awareness through interactive exercises.                         | ⁠Existing  | Hermit Labs Pvt. Ltd.                       | Learning disabilities |
| 22 | Voice fusion AI                                                                    | AI application to provide assistive support to individuals with SLDs in multiple Indian languages                                               | ⁠Prototype | PerpetualBlock Technologies Private Limited | Learning disabilities |
| 23 | ScreenPlay - a digital game based screening tool for autism and related disorders. | Digital, game- based screening tool designed to identify children aged 3 to 6 who may be at risk for autism or related developmental conditions | ⁠Existing  | Kidaura Innovations Pvt Ltd                 | Learning disabilities |
| 24 | Jiveesha                                                                           | AI-powered diagnostic platform for early detection of SLDs                                                                                      | Idea       | Daira Edtech Private Limited                | Learning disabilities |
| 25 | Adaptive Learning and Detection for SLDs                                           | Advanced AI techniques to detect Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs) such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia.                           | ⁠Prototype | Narottam Innovations Pvt. Ltd.              | Learning disabilities |
| 26 | Special Educator AI                                                                | AI-driven system designed to address India's shortage of special educators and support children with SLDs.                                      | Idea       | Banyan Intelligence Private Limited         | Learning disabilities |
| 27 | ConvoZen.AI by NoBroker Technologies                                               | AI-powered conversational platform that automates customer engagement across channels like chat, voice, email, and social media, offering fast, | Solution   | Nobroker Technologies Solutions Pvt. Ltd    | Governance            |

|    |                                    | personalized, and multilingual support.                                                                                                                                                                       |            |                                 |            |
|----|------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|---------------------------------|------------|
| 28 | AI contact center                  | AI-powered technologies like machine translation, NLP, ASR and TTS, and multilingual voice recognition to enhance governance by improving communication and accessibility across India's linguistic diversity | Solution   | Devnagri AI Pvt. Ltd            | Governance |
| 29 | Adalat AI: AI solutions for Courts | AI-powered platform provides real-time multilingual transcription, translation, live case flow management, and WhatsApp chatbots to streamline courtroom operations                                           | ⁠Prototype | Legsys.AI Technology Foundation | Governance |
| 30 | Gov.Civis.Vote                     | AI-powered Digital Public Infrastructure designed to transform public consultations in India by making citizen engagement more inclusive, scalable, and comprehensive                                         | Solution   | Civic Innovation Foundation     | Governance |

## Annexure III

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

| NAME OFTHE THEME                   | SELECTEDAPPLICANT                                                                 | TITLE OFTHE 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                                                                                            |