3/31/24, 8:54 PM A Trillion Dollar BOOM! India OKs $1.
lar BOOM! India OKs $1.2B For Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem That Could Swell Its GDP
A Trillion Dollar BOOM! India OKs $1.2B For Artificial
Intelligence Ecosystem That Could Swell Its GDP
eurasiantimes.com/a-trillion-dollar-boom-india-oks-1-2b-for-artificial
Guest Author March 10, 2024
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Guest Author
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March 10, 2024
By Vaishali Basu Sharma
The Indian government has approved the India Artificial Intelligence (AI) Mission, with an
outlay of Rs 10,372 crore ($1.2B) for five years, to encourage AI development and
supercomputing capacity in the country.
The starting point of its ambitious AI mission is to enable access to 10,000 graphic
processing units (GPUs), as the demand for GPU-based servers has increased because
they can process data at a higher speed compared to CPU-based servers. GPUs are
essential for the creation of artificial intelligence-based applications and models.
India’s mega AI mission will operate on a public-private partnership model and extend
GPUs as a digital public infrastructure that can offer AI-as-a-service, and also provide
access to targeted funding for AI startups. The graphics processing units approved under
the IndiaAI Mission will be made available in the next 18-24 months.
As the buzz around artificial intelligence and generative AI continues to grow, the
government’s mission is to fill a major investment gap in generative startups.
For instance, between 2013 and 2022, investments in India stood at just $8 billion,
whereas the US saw nearly $250 billion in private investments in AI startups.
In fact, given the scarcity and exorbitant costs of this infrastructure, startups have been
demanding the creation of a GPU cluster that they can have access to. Access to a GPU
cluster makes it easier for AI startups to attract more investments.
Investing in 10,000 GPUs and making them available to researchers and innovators is a
step towards making India the AI application capital of the world. Shedding dependency
on models from the likes of OpenAI and MetaAI, startups can now create foundational
models from scratch for a variety of applications.
According to information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, “The focus is on
developing the entire ecosystem, from compute power to models, from applications to
talent, and from data platform to regulatory framework.”
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3/31/24, 8:54 PM A Trillion Dollar BOOM! India OKs $1.2B For Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem That Could Swell Its GDP
Texas-based global cloud computing company Rackspace Technology is keen to
establish a data center in India as more local firms adopt artificial intelligence. In India,
Rackspace has 142 customers from sectors such as manufacturing, particularly
automobiles and consumer packaged goods, retail, logistics, and banking.
The forecast for India’s AI landscape looks buoyant. Stanford AI Index 2023 ranks India
as the global leader in AI skill penetration. It is estimated that through GenAI adoption,
India can potentially add $359-438 billion to its GDP in 2029-30, over and above its
baseline estimates.
And in seven years from now, GenAI’s contribution should translate from $1.2 trillion to
$1.5 trillion cumulated GDP. As per a report titled ‘AI’s Role in Turbocharging the Industry,’
authored jointly by IT industry body Nasscom and the Boston Consulting Group, India’s
market for artificial intelligence is set to expand at a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 25% until 2027, driven not only by increased investments but also by a
burgeoning talent pool and concerted efforts by companies to upskill their workforce.
But there is also a corresponding increase in the demand for AI skills.
According to Statista, investment in AI technology will reach almost a trillion dollars by
2024. And companies are accelerating the rollout of their AI technology to automate their
tasks. For example, caller identification app Truecaller has announced the launch of an
AI-powered call recording feature in India, allowing for a detailed transcription of the
entire phone call, along with an AI-generated call summary.
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3/31/24, 8:54 PM A Trillion Dollar BOOM! India OKs $1.2B For Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem That Could Swell Its GDP
Representational Image
During his recent visit to India, Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella highlighted
the country’s unique potential to realize the promise of AI. Stating that the momentum
around developers and development in India is “unbelievable,” Nadela pointed out that
India is expected to overtake the US as the largest developer community on GitHub by
2027; “Today, as we speak, India is number two only next to the United States in terms of
the total number of developers on GitHub, and it’s going to cross in 2028, I believe, or
2027… it is going to cross… So it’s going to be the place where the most number of
developers are going to be in.”
It is indeed the opportune time to venture deeper into the convergence of advanced
algorithms, data analytics, and computational power, creating a unique AI ecosystem
whereby applications unlock new frontiers extending beyond automation and cost
reduction.
From Bhasini, which makes digital services more accessible in non-English Indian
languages, PM-KISAN chatbot catering to the linguistic and regional diversity of farmers,
AI-powered early warning system CottonAce, an AI-driven sowing app that encompasses
45 years of rainfall patterns, AI and image recognition tech for near-real-time traffic and
city infra-monitoring, to several other adaptations, India is developing and deploying AI
solutions to meet multiple developmental challenges.
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3/31/24, 8:54 PM A Trillion Dollar BOOM! India OKs $1.2B For Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem That Could Swell Its GDP
Vaishali Basu Sharma is a strategic and economic affairs analyst. She has
worked as a consultant with the National Security Council Secretariat for
nearly a decade.
She tweets at @basu_vaishali.
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