Cabinet Approves Rs 10,372 Crore AI Mission
India AI mission cabinet approval: The lack of appropriate computer hardware is preventing India from fully capitalizing on the opportunities presented by generative artificial intelligence (AI), but the country has taken the first step towards fixing this problem.
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Government Support for Artificial Intelligence in India
India has taken the initial step towards resolving a critical issue it faces in seizing opportunities related to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)—namely, its lack of suitable computing hardware. The India AI Mission will get a five-year budget of Rs 10,372 crore, which was approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday (March 7).
Cabinet Approves Rs 10,372 crore AI Mission
Subsidizing private companies seeking to establish AI computing capacity in the country is one of the many things the government plans to do under it. The approval may encourage investments in the field, even though it is still in its early stages. For example, private companies may set up data centres in the country and grant access to start-ups so that the latter can test and develop generative AI models. This has been an advantage for US-based startups like Perplexity AI, which has allowed them to use the computing power of companies like Nvidia.
While developing a large-scale AI system, computational capacity—also known as compute—is crucial, right up there with algorithmic innovation and datasets. The high prices make it one of the most difficult components to acquire for smaller companies that want to train and construct AI systems. For instance, a data centre consisting of 10,000 GPUs could cost over $100 million (about Rs 8,000 crore), given that Nvidia's A100 chip, widely regarded as the most advanced for AI applications, retails for about $10,000.
More than 10,000 GPUs are being considered for establishment as part of the India AI Mission. In addition, it will be useful for building foundational models for priority areas like healthcare, agriculture, and governance that can handle over 100 billion parameters. These models will be trained using datasets that cover the main Indian languages.
National AI strategy and Implementation
Following Cabinet approval, the government will also provide funding to deep tech start-ups at different stages of growth. This has been allocated about Rs 2,000 crore of the total budget. The initiative will also see the establishment of an IndiaAI Datasets Platform, the goal of which is to foster AI innovation by making better use of non-personal datasets in terms of their accessibility, quality, and utilization. Recognized "high-quality" AI-ready datasets will be hosted by the platform. These suggestions address the hardware and access to high-quality datasets, which are two of the most important aspects of developing large language models.
