New Delhi: In a significant move to position India as a global leader in ethical and affordable AI technology, the Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw has announced the impending launch of the country's own indigenous AI model.
This cutting-edge development, unveiled at Electronics Niketan in New Delhi, aims to provide reliable AI solutions customised for Indian contexts at highly competitive rates.
Interacting with the media, Minister Vaishnaw emphasised the timeliness of this initiative, citing India’s trusted global standing as a key factor in ensuring the success of its AI mission. He expressed optimism that the project would enhance India's stature as a technological powerhouse committed to the development of ethical AI solutions.
“The Indian AI model is a step towards making modern technology accessible to all,” Vaishnaw said, highlighting the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to empower people at the grassroots level through economic inclusivity.
The project, backed by a high-performance common computing facility, marks a major milestone in the ongoing India AI Mission. With a goal of providing AI services tailored to Indian languages and cultural nuances, this initiative will begin with a computing facility housing 10,000 GPUs, with an additional 8,693 GPUs set to be integrated soon. Researchers, students, and developers stand to benefit immensely from this cutting-edge infrastructure.
In terms of cost-efficiency, the Indian AI model offers AI computation at a fraction of the global market rate. While global models charge between $2.5 and $3 per hour, India’s model will cost under ?100 per hour, thanks to a 40% government subsidy. The initiative will introduce affordable half-yearly and annual subscription plans, making high-performance AI technology accessible to all.
The India AI Mission has already made remarkable progress, creating a robust and scalable infrastructure of 18,693 GPUs, surpassing global benchmarks. The facility exceeds the capacity of similar international projects, such as Open Source Model DeepSeek and ChatGPT, and will soon be operational for widespread use. In an effort to further encourage innovation and accessibility, the government has also launched a Request for Empanelment (RFE) to offer cloud-based AI services to various stakeholders, including academia, MSMEs, and startups.
Ensuring safety and ethical deployment of AI remains a priority for the government. Vaishnaw announced the establishment of the IndiaAI Safety Institute, dedicated to addressing AI risks and safety challenges through a techno-legal approach. The Institute will collaborate with academia, industry, and government stakeholders to ensure that AI developments are both secure and trusted.
The Ministry also launched key safety-related initiatives, including AI Bias Mitigation, Explainable AI frameworks, and AI Privacy Strategies, all aimed at ensuring the ethical use of AI technologies.
Further underlining the importance of AI in addressing India's unique challenges, the AI Mission will focus on AI applications in critical sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and disaster management. With 18 identified applications, the initiative aims to leverage AI to address issues such as climate change and agritech solutions, benefiting millions of citizens across the country.
Shri Vaishnaw also revealed a call for proposals to develop foundational AI models using Indian datasets, inviting startups, researchers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate on creating AI solutions for India-specific needs. The initiative aims to promote inclusivity and fairness by developing AI models that address the diverse cultural, linguistic, and societal context of the country.
The India's AI Mission, which is supported by a budgetary allocation of ?10,372 crores, aims to make India a hub for AI development and applications. In a bid to ensure the mission's sustainability, the government is also strategically investing in India's semiconductor sector to complement its AI ambitions.
With its focus on affordability, inclusivity, and innovation, India is poised to emerge as a global AI leader, shaping the future of AI for societal and industrial advancements.
