India earmarks $1.25B to boost growth of AI

Through the IndiaAI Mission, India aims to democratize access to computing power and support nationwide AI development.
India’s supreme decision-making body, the Union Cabinet, has approved the “IndiaAI Mission” with an initial budget of 10,300 crore rupees ($1.24 billion). The drive aims to support artificial intelligence (AI) startups and innovations over the next five years. 
Through the IndiaAI Mission, the country aims to provide nationwide easy access to computing power — a crucial component for AI development and deployment — for innovators, startups, students and educational institutions. Union Minister Piyush Goyal announced the development on March 7 at a cabinet briefing. The supporting announcement read:
“The overarching aim of this financial outlay is to ensure a structured implementation of the IndiaAI Mission through a public-private partnership model aimed at nurturing India’s AI innovation ecosystem.”
The IndiaAI Mission consists of seven components, of which four are dedicated to building and democratizing compute capacity and indigenous Large Multimodal Models (LMMs), streamlining access to quality non-personal data sets and developing AI applications.
An AI computing infrastructure of 10,000 or more Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) will be used to provide critical resources to AI startups built through public-private partnerships. The other components focus on introducing AI educational courses, financing deep-tech AI startups and building safety nets around AI advancements.
India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, said:

“The Cabinet’s approval for the IndiaAI Mission will empower AI startups and expand access to compute infrastructure, marking a giant leap in our journey towards becoming a global leader in AI innovation.”

The Indian government believes that AI advancements will contribute to expanding India’s economy and generate highly skilled employment opportunities.
On March 1, India warned all tech companies to get prior approval from the government before releasing newly developed AI tools. The ministry added:

“Availability to the users on Indian Internet must be done so with explicit permission of the Government of India.”

Additionally, the advisory asked platforms to make sure that their tools will not “threaten the integrity of the electoral process,” as general elections are anticipated this summer.