In a nutshell: Indian authorities have approved a significant investment to establish a local AI ecosystem. Public subsidies will be used to create a robust "compute infrastructure," and new language models will enhance chatbot capabilities to cater to India's diverse spoken languages.
The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved a new $1.24 billion investment for the IndiaAI mission, a "national-level" plan designed to create an all-Indian AI ecosystem from scratch. Most of the proposed funds will likely be allocated to build a new, powerful high-performance computing (HPC) system, which will serve as India's central AI infrastructure for both the public and private sectors.
IndiaAI's supercomputer is expected to feature 10,000 "or more" GPUs as AI accelerators, as explained by India's Ministry of Electronics & IT, and it will be developed through a public-private partnership. While no additional technical specifications are provided, the HPC system is intended to support startup companies and research organizations within India's emerging AI ecosystem.
Another integral component of the IndiaAI mission is the IndiaAI Innovation Centre, tasked with the development and deployment of indigenous Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) and domain-specific foundational models. India, with a total of 23 official languages, is expected to benefit from locally-developed models, supporting the country's rich linguistic heritage.
IndiaAI will also establish local datasets through the IndiaAI Datasets Platform, providing streamlined access to "non-personal," high-quality databases via a unified data platform. Through the IndiaAI FutureSkills initiative, New Delhi aims to train new skilled workers for the growing AI job market. The program seeks to enhance access to graduate and postgraduate AI projects, with new "Data and AI Labs" offering courses on foundational models across the country.
India also intends to support startups with the IndiaAI Startup Financing program, fostering the development of the AI private sector and, ideally, giving rise to "futuristic" AI projects. Additionally, IndiaAI will focus on developing safe and "responsible" AI initiatives through indigenous software frameworks, government guidelines, and proper guardrails to prevent unlawful data exploitation or privacy violations.
The Indian government is presenting IndiaAI as a transformative mission that will operate on multiple levels, bolstering domestic AI capabilities and creating new job opportunities for skilled individuals. The Modi government also aims to demonstrate to the world that machine learning technology can be harnessed for social good, moving away from profit-centric endeavors like OpenAI's ChatGPT and other commercial AI services.