Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar outlines IndiaAI programme; says govt building AI for governance, commercial use

Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, on Monday broadly outlined the IndiaAI programme and how it will help the country build world-class platforms, solutions and tools to not only solve local issues but also help the world.

Reiterating that artificial intelligence (AI) is a "kinetic enabler" of the digital economy, Chandrasekhar said that India is building AI in a way that is beyond ChatGPT which has made conversations via AI a fashionable thing for the masses.

"We aim to build commercially deployable AI platforms and solutions, developed by a vibrant startup ecosystem in the country which is our primary goal," the minister said during a dialogue at the Vigyan Bhawan.

Next goal is to build AI for India, as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"We are building Indianised AI tools. Further improving governance via the India Stack has a key goal for us," said Chandrasekhar.

The third important area is to develop deep capability building and world-leading capabilities in AI with the help from the "Indian academia, startups, tech companies, government research labs and institutions," he stressed.

According to PM Modi, we needs to make AI work for India.

Chandrasekhar said that IndiaAI is being designed exactly the way "we designed the semiconductor policy, with slow and steady steps".

India aims to become a global powerhouse of AI which does not just stop on integrating foreign chatbots but building next-generation of AI-based innovations to empower billions of citizens.

"AI will certainly transform the digital economy and grow the business economy in the country. It will help build more use cases via the India stack -- like Aadhaar, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), DigiLocker, CoWIN and more.

The government, in the Union Budget for FY24, announced to open three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence (AI) at the top educational institutions, for realising the vision of "Make AI in India" and "Make AI Work for India".

According to Chandrasekhar, the government is expanding the IndiaAI initiative in partnership with homegrown tech companies, startups and academic institutions under a comprehensive AI programme.