India’s artificial intelligence strategy is bearing fruit

India is strategically positioning itself as a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI), leveraging its robust information technology ecosystem and government-led initiatives.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the government has onboarded 34,381 GPUs from 14 empanelled service providers to support AI development.

These GPUs are made available at subsidised rates, with foundational model training using H100 GPUs priced significantly lower than commercial cloud providers, ensuring affordable access to critical computational resources.

 The average rate for these GPUs is about Rs65 per GPU per hour. 

India’s IT sector, contributing over $250 billion in annual revenue and employing more than six million people, underpins these efforts. The country’s AI capabilities have been recognised in global rankings such as the Stanford AI rankings, reflecting its skilled workforce and extensive developer community.

Moreover, India ranks as the second-largest contributor to AI projects on GitHub, highlighting its vibrant innovation ecosystem.

Government strategies

Central to the government’s strategy is the IndiaAI mission, launched in March 2024, which aims to establish a comprehensive and inclusive AI ecosystem aligned with national development priorities.

Initiatives like the IndiaAI Application Development Initiative target AI solutions addressing India-specific challenges across critical sectors including climate change, healthcare, agriculture, governance, and assistive technologies, with 30 applications already approved. Complementary sector-focused hackathons encourage collaboration with ministries and institutions.

The launch of ‘AIKosh’, a unified beta data platform, integrates extensive datasets, AI models, and development toolkits, enabling developers to innovate efficiently without redundancies.

Another significant initiative, the IndiaAI Foundation Models, focuses on creating indigenous Large Multimodal Models trained on Indian datasets and languages to ensure sovereignty and competitiveness in generative AI.

Supporting innovation, the IndiaAI Mission has selected four startups from over 500 proposals in its first phase. Concurrently, the IndiaAI FutureSkills program aims to cultivate AI expertise nationwide by increasing advanced education opportunities and establishing AI labs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, with more than 200 students awarded fellowships in its inaugural year.