Lok Sabha Question No. 2993 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-19
Subject: Integrating Meta's AI Model into Skill India Eco-system
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Dr. Nishikant Dubey, Shri Damodar Agrawal, Shri P P Chaudhary, Shri Naba Charan Majhi, Shri Alok Sharma, Smt. Smita Uday Wagh, Shri Gajendra  Singh Patel

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION. NO. 2993

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 19.03.2025

## INTEGRATING META'S AI MODEL INTO SKILL INDIA ECO-SYSTEM

†2993.

SHRI ALOK SHARMA:

SHRI GAJENDRA SINGH PATEL:

SHRI DAMODAR AGRAWAL:

SHRI P P CHAUDHARY:

SHRI NABA CHARAN MAJHI:

DR. NISHIKANT DUBEY:

SMT. SMITA UDAY WAGH:

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

- (a) the manner in which the Government plans to monitor and evaluate the impact of the AI chatbot  in  improving  learning  outcomes,  skilling  initiatives  and  to  enhance  local  skilling opportunities in the country including for youths in Jalgaon district and other rural areas of Maharashtra;
- (b)  the  steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  ensure  data  security  and  privacy  while integrating  Meta's  AI  model  into  the  Skill  India  ecosystem  in  the  country  particularly  for skilling centres and institutions in Maharashtra;
- (c) the expected timeline for the full-scale roll out of the AI chatbot beyond the initial sixmonths pilot phase in the country including Jalgaon and other parts of Maharashtra;
- (d) the steps being taken by the Government to integrate vernacular language support beyond English, Hindi and Hinglish to make AI-driven skilling more inclusive;
- (e) the steps being taken by the Government to integrate Marathi language support into the AI chatbot to ensure better accessibility for students and job seekers in Maharashtra especially in Jalgaon; and
- (f) the details of the outcomes on skill development and entrepreneurship through AI driven skill development by the Government?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (f):The Government of India emphasizes the concept of 'AI for All,' aligning with the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision to democratise the 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 various sectors. At the same time, the Government is cognizant of the risks posed by AI and the need to create guardrails to ensure that AI is safe and trusted.

The Government of Maharashtra has informed that Meta's AI model is  an informational chatbot which is currently in its preliminary stage.

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  FutureSkills,  IndiaAI  Startup  Financing,  IndiaAI  Innovation  Centre, IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Applications Development Initiative and Safe & Trusted AI.

One of  the  key  pillars  of  the  IndiaAI  Mission  is  IndiaAI  Innovation  Centre  (IAIC),  under which IndiaAI on 30 th January, 2025, 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 .  The  initiative  aims  to  establish indigenous  AI  models  that  align  with  global  standards  while  addressing  unique  challenges and opportunities within the Indian context.

In the first month, IndiaAI Mission has received a total of 67 proposals till 15th February 2025 aimed at building India's foundation models, with contributions from both established startups  and  new  teams  of  researchers  &  academia. 22 are  focused  on Large  Language Models  (LLMs)  &  Large  Multimodal  Models  (LMMs) ,  while  the  remaining 45 are centered on domain-specific models (SLMs) . The majority of SLMs target key sectors such as healthcare, education, and financial services. Along with funding support, a wide range of GPUs have been requested by teams submitting these proposals.

Further,  Government  of  India  through  MeitY  implemented  the Digital  India  Bhashini initiative to provide Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven language technology solutions through the  Bhashini  platform  (https://bhashini.gov.in)  for  all 22  Scheduled  Indian  Languages including Marathi, providing voice-based access, and to assist in the creation of content in Indian languages. Digital India Bhashini aims to build speech-to-speech machine translation systems for various Indian languages and dialects and to evolve a Unified Language Interface (ULI). This initiative enabled citizens to access digital services in their vernacular languages, further  increasing  digital  inclusion  and  accessibility,  as  recommended  in  SDG  10  (Reduce inequality  within  and  among  countries). In  collaboration  with  over  70  research  institutes, Bhashini  has  been  at  the  forefront  of  developing  state-of-the-art  language  AI  models  for Indian  languages.  The  platform  currently  hosts  over  350  AI-based  language  models, encompassing  Automatic  Speech  Recognition  (ASR),  Machine  Translation  (MT),  Text-toSpeech (TTS), Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and other services like Transliteration and Textual Language Detection, covering over 17+ language services.

Additionally, IndiaAI in collaboration with Meta has announced the establishment of the Center for Generative AI, Srijan ( सृजन ) at IIT Jodhpur, along with the launch of the 'YuvAi Initiative for Skilling and Capacity Building' in collaboration with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), for the advancement of open source artificial intelligence (AI) in  India.  The  partnership  will  enable  development  of  indigenous  AI  applications,  advance skill development in AI, boost research capabilities with the aim of contributing to India's AI mission of ensuring tech sovereignty and the vision of building AI solutions that are tailormade for India. Through education, capacity building, and policy advisory, the Government of  India  will  be  empowering  the  next  generation  of  researchers,  students,  and  practitioners with the knowledge and tools necessary for the responsible development and deployment of GenAI technologies.

The  Government  of  India  is  focused  to  meet  the  growing  demand  for  professionals  in emerging fields like data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI), some of the initiatives by the  Government  of  India  to  integrate  Al  and  cybersecurity  training  into  existing  skill development programs are as under:

-  MeitY  through  CERT-In  conducts joint cybersecurity training programs in collaboration with Industry partners to upskill the  cybersecurity  workforce  in Government, public and private organizations with the latest skills. Technical training sessions in the area of AI-powered cybersecurity threats were conducted with experts
- from Industry to help the participants understand the latest threat landscape and best practices. Also, CERT-In provided expert support in the Gen AI Exchange Hackathon organized by industry partners for working  professionals, student developers, freelancers and entrepreneurs in October 2024.
-  MeitY has initiated 'FutureSkills PRIME' a programme for Re-skilling/Up-skilling of  IT  Manpower for Employability in new/emerging technologies namely Artificial Intelligence,  Robotic  Process  Automation,  Augmented/Virtual  Reality,  Internet  of Things, Big Data Analytics, Additive Manufacturing/ 3D Printing, Cloud Computing, Social  &  Mobile,  Cyber  Security,  and  Blockchain.  Under  the  FutureSkills  Prime program,  there  are  119  courses  specifically  focused  on  the  cutting-edge  fields  of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
-  MeitY  launched  the Visvesvaraya  PhD  Scheme in  2014  with  the  objective  of enhancing the number of PhDs in the country to compete globally in the knowledgeintensive sectors of Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) and IT/IT Enabled Services (IT/ITES). Under the scheme, financial support is provided to Fulltime & Part-time PhD candidates and Young Faculty who are undertaking research and  technology  development.  The  Scheme  also  provides  infrastructure  support  to institutions.
-  MeitY through IndiaAI FutureSkills Pillar aims to increase the number of graduates, postgraduates, and PhD scholars in the AI domain while establishing Data and AI Labs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to offer foundational courses in Data and AI. As part of this initiative, IndiaAI Fellowships are awarded to students pursuing relevant undergraduate and postgraduate programs at Private or Centrally Funded Technical Institutes (CFTIs) recognized by AICTE, NBA, NAAC, or UGC. So far, 150 undergraduate students, 48 postgraduate students,  and 3  PhD scholars  have  been  selected  for  the  fellowship. Additionally,  IndiaAI  has  set  up  Data  Labs  at  NIELIT's  Delhi  centre  and  ICIT, Nagaland, with plans to establish 27 more labs in collaboration with NIELIT across Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, details of which are placed in Annexure I.

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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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