Lok Sabha Question No. 5301 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-03-25
Subject: Generative Artificial Intelligence
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Shri P C Mohan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5301

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 25.03.2026

## GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

## 5301.  SHRI P C MOHAN:

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

- (a) whether the Government has taken steps to promote and support startups working in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and related technologies;
- (b)  if  so,  the  details  of  funding  incubation  and  research  support  programmes  launched  under Digital India, MeitY Startup Hub or other national innovation missions;
- (c) whether Bengaluru, being India's leading technology and innovation hub has been identified for special GenAI incubation clusters or research centres and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) the number of Artificial Intelligence (AI) or GenAI startups currently operating in Bengaluru and the support extended to them; and
- (e)  the  future  plans  to  strengthen  India's  global  leadership  in  AI  innovation  while  ensuring responsible and ethical use of Generative AI technologies?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (e): India's AI strategy is based on the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision to democratize the use of technology. It aims to address India centric challenges, create economic and employment opportunities  for  all  Indians.  Government  is  committed  to  harnessing  the  power  of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the good of our people in sectors like healthcare, agriculture and education while mitigating risks associated with AI deployment.

Towards this goal, Government of India approved the IndiaAI Mission in March 2024, the. Various initiatives have been undertaken under IndiaAI mission, outlined as follows:

## Development of India's Sovereign Models

Government  is  supporting  Twelve  (12)  foundational  models  under  the  AI  Mission.  Models developed by Sarvam AI, BharatGen, Gnani and Socket were launched during the IndiaAI Impact Summit 2026.

These models represent important progress in building India's own AI capabilities tailored to local languages and use-cases.

## Promoting Indian start-ups to get global opportunities:

The IndiaAI Startups Global program was launched in collaboration with Station F (Paris) and HEC Paris. Under this program, 10 Indian AI startups have been selected and supported to expand into the European market. Details are at Annexure-I .

It  supports  Indian AI  startups  in  accessing  global  innovation  ecosystems  and  expanding  into international markets. These startups are already developing innovative solutions across sectors such as governance, smart cities, document intelligence, and enterprise automation.

Their work highlights the growing maturity of India's AI startup ecosystem and its ability to build practical, deployment-ready solutions.

## Development of AI Applications:

Further, under the IndiaAI Mission, thirty (30) applications have been selected focusing on Indiaspecific problems. These applications belong to critical sectors notably agriculture, health, climate change and natural disaster. Details are at Annexure-II .

## Collaboration with other departments/ministries:

Sector-specific hackathons and innovation challenges have also been organised with the Indian Cyber  Crime  Coordination  Centre  (I4C),  the  Geological  Survey  of  India,  Ministry  of Ayush, Ministry  of  MSME, NFRA and National Cancer Grid (NCG) to further encourage focused AI solution development.

From these hackathons and innovation challenges, 10 startups have been identified for scaling up the solutions.

## Strengthening AI research ecosystem in India

Government is developing an extensive AI talent and research pipeline by supporting 500 PhD fellows, 5,000 postgraduates and 8,000 undergraduates.

27 IndiaAI Data and AI Labs have been established in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities through NIELIT to conduct coursework in AI, data curation, annotation, cleaning and applied data science

543 ITIs and Polytechnics across all States/UTs have been approved to set up additional IndiaAI Data and AI Labs

More than 250 fellowships have already been awarded under the programme to promote highquality research in Artificial Intelligence

## AI Centre of Excellence

Government is establishing Artificial Intelligence Centres of Excellence (AI-CoEs) across States and Union Territories in a collaborative model State/UTs and Industry Partners. These CoEs aims to nurture skilled professionals through targeted talent development programs in emerging tech domains.

In  addition,  7  Centres  of  Excellence  have  been  established  in  emerging  technology  domain including Gaming/ VFX, AR/VR, Blockchain, IoT at different geographical locations. Details of these CoEs are placed at Annexure-III .

## Responsible and safe AI:

Various initiatives have been taken to promote responsible and ethical AI across multiple sectors especially on governance and education. Details are as follows:

- Establishment  of  IndiaAI  Safety  Institute  for AI  safety,  security,  and  developing  trust  with diverse stakeholders.
- Diverse  stakeholders  including  academia,  startups,  industry  &  government  bodies  engage through a hub-and-spoke model.
- 13 Responsible AI Projects are underway covering Machine Unlearning, AI Bias Mitigation, Privacy-Enhancing Tools, AI Governance Testing, etc. (Details in Annexure-IV .

******

## Annexure-I

The final list of 10 Startups for the IndiaAI Startups Global Program - Paris:

|   Sr. No. | Startup Name                | Area of Work                                                                        |
|-----------|-----------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | PrivaSapien Technologies    | Responsible AI with privacy engineering and privacy-enhancing technologies          |
|         2 | CoRover.ai                  | Conversational Gen AI platform for contextual, domain-specific human-like responses |
|         3 | Staqu Technologies (Jarvis) | AI-powered audio-video analytics for surveillance, security, and governance         |
|         4 | SatSure Analytics           | Earth Observation using satellite imagery and AI for decision intelligence          |
|         5 | Storyvord                   | AI-based video content generation from product URLs and brand context               |
|         6 | VolarAlta                   | Drone-based AI solutions for industrial inspections                                 |
|         7 | Smartail                    | AI-powered edtech platform for immersive learning and real-time assessment          |
|         8 | Secure Blink                | AI-driven cybersecurity with proactive DevSecOps posture management                 |
|         9 | NeuroPixel.AI               | AI-enabled ultra-fast image editing for fashion and e-commerce                      |
|        10 | Voicing AI                  | Agentic AI platform for enterprise-grade intelligent voice agents                   |

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

|   Sl. No. | Name of the Solution                                                                                 | Solution Description                                                                                                                                                         | Theme       |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------|
|         1 | Promoting regenerative agriculture practices for a sustainable future using AI                       | In-house developed MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) technology designed to ensure the integrity and quality of generated carbon credits.                       | Agriculture |
|         2 | Krishi Sah'AI'yak - Farming Co-pilot                                                                 | AI-powered conversational co-pilot to provide personalized advisory to farmers in Indic languages                                                                            | 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                                                                  | 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.                                                | 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 MLmodels to deliver timely, chemical-free soil analysis.                          | Agriculture |
|         6 | AI deep-tech driven quality assessment of Maize                                                      | SAAS platform to provide objective quality assessment of maize including price estimation &sales pipelining.                                                                 | Agriculture |
|         7 | AI-Driven Live Fish Logistics and Mortality Reduction in Aquaculture                                 | AI-driven solution that optimizes aquaculture operations                                                                                                                     | Agriculture |
|         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. | 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                                            | Climate     |

|   10 | Multi-Hazard Susceptibility Mapping                                                             | hazard management system to predict Landslides, Debris Flows and Flash Floods                                                                             | 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                                   | 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.                                   | 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                 | 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.                                                            | Healthcare |
|   15 | Impactful AI solution, preventing preventable blindness, for socio- economic transformation.    | early detection of vision threatening retinal abnormalities                                                                                               | Healthcare |
|   16 | AI Powered Wearable Technology for Detection &Diagnosis of Musculoskeletal Joint Health Pain.   | AI Enabled Hardware Platform for Joint Pain Diagnostics and Rehabilitation Segments of Healthcare                                                         | Healthcare |
|   17 | VoxelBox                                                                                        | Neuro-informatics platform that allows to map the functional maps / connectomics of the human brain                                                       | Healthcare |
|   18 | Development of Ocellux: AnAI-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 | 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.             | 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 evaluate metastases in lymph nodes using AI/ML based algorithms   | Healthcare            |
|   21 | Readabled (Online Dyslexia Training)                                                | web-based application designed to help children with dyslexia improve phonetic awareness through interactive exercises.                                                                                      | Learning disabilities |
|   22 | Voice fusion AI                                                                     | AI application to provide assistive support to individuals with SLDs in multiple Indian languages                                                                                                            | 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                                                               | Learning disabilities |
|   24 | Jiveesha                                                                            | AI-powered diagnostic platform for early detection of SLDs                                                                                                                                                   | Learning disabilities |
|   25 | Adaptive Learning and Detection for SLDs                                            | Advanced AI techniques to detect Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs) such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia.                                                                                        | Learning disabilities |
|   26 | Special Educator AI                                                                 | AI-driven system designed to address India's shortage of special educators and support children with SLDs.                                                                                                   | 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, personalized, and multilingual support.                      | Governance            |
|   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 | 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   | 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  | Governance   |

## Annexure-III

Details of the Centres of Excellence (CoEs) operational in Emerging Technologies

|   Sr. No. | Name of the CoEs                                           | Partnership                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
|-----------|------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | Gaming, VFX, Computer Vision& AI at Hyderabad              | Govt. of Telangana, IIT Hyderabad, IIIT Hyderabad, Qualcomm, Hyderabad gaming associations such as Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) and Telangana VFX, Animation and Gaming Association (TVAGA) |
|         2 | Virtual Augmented Reality (VAR) CoE at Bhubaneswar         | Govt. of Odisha and IIT Bhubaneswar                                                                                                                                                                               |
|         3 | Blockchain CoE at Gurugram                                 | Govt. of Haryana, IBM and PadUp Ventures                                                                                                                                                                          |
|         4 | Centre of Excellence - IoT, Gurugram, Haryana              | NASSCOM                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
|         5 | Centre of Excellence - IoT, Gandhinagar, Gujarat           | NASSCOM                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
|         6 | Centre of Excellence - IoT, Bengaluru, Karnataka           | NASSCOM                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
|         7 | Centre of Excellence - IoT, Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh | NASSCOM                                                                                                                                                                                                           |

Annexure-IV 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                                                                                           |
| Deepfake Detection Tool            | IIT Jodhpur (CI) &IIT Madras                                                      | Saakshya: Multi-Agent, RAG- Enhanced Framework for Deepfake Detection and Governance                                                                                              |
| Deepfake Detection Tool            | IIT Mandi & Directorate of Forensic Services, Himachal Pradesh                    | AI Vishleshak: Improving Audio- Visual Deepfake Detection and Handwritten Signature Forgery Detection with Adversarial Robustness, Explainability &Domain Generalization          |
| Deepfake Detection Tool            | IIT Kharagpur                                                                     | Real-Time Voice Deepfake Detection System                                                                                                                                         |

********

| Bias Mitigation                  | Digital Futures Lab &Karya          | Evaluating Gender Bias in Agriculture LLMs- Creating Digital Public Goods (DPG) for Benchmarking and Fair Data Work   |
|----------------------------------|-------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Penetration Testing & Evaluation | Globals ITES Pvt Ltd & IIIT Dharwad | Anvil: Penetration Testing & Evaluation Tool for LLM and Generative AI                                                |