India’s Growing AI Ecosystem

  Sansad TV   Mar 7, 2025  Add to Reading List

India's advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are receiving significant global attention, particularly following Prime Minister's address at the AI Action Summit 2025 in Paris. The country is positioning itself as a key player in the ethical development and deployment of AI, striving to build foundational models, enhance data access, and foster AI innovations that benefit society. These efforts are seen as essential not only for India’s national development but also for global collaborations that address pressing societal challenges.

AI Action Summit 2025: A Global Milestone

The AI Action Summit 2025, held in Paris, brought together policymakers, technology experts, business leaders, and thought leaders from around the world to deliberate on AI governance, ethical practices, and its broader societal implications. This was the third such summit, following the earlier summits in Bletchley Park (UK, 2023) and Seoul (South Korea, 2024).

  • Bletchley Park Declaration (2023): Focused on establishing AI as a safe, human-centered technology, emphasizing responsible use across all sectors.
  • Seoul Summit (2024): Reinforced international cooperation, establishing frameworks for AI safety institutes and promoting joint efforts among nations.

India’s participation in the Paris summit, co-chaired with France, marked a significant milestone. At the summit, India made announcements regarding the formation of a foundation dedicated to public-interest AI, with an investment of €400 million, and the creation of a Coalition for Sustainable AI, which promotes the development of energy-efficient AI technologies.

India's AI Journey: Key Milestones and Developments

1. India AI Mission: A Strategic Push for National AI Development

India’s ambitious AI journey is driven by the India AI Mission, with a budget allocation of ₹10,372 crores. The mission focuses on seven critical pillars to enhance AI capabilities in the country:

  • Access to GPUs: Facilitating access to advanced graphic processing units (GPUs) for AI development is a priority. The mission aims to provide 18,000 high-performance GPU computing facilities for AI research, with 10,000 already available.

  • AI Data Infrastructure: The mission emphasizes the creation of AI-ready datasets, which are crucial for training models suited to Indian contexts and addressing regional challenges.

  • Skilling Initiatives: Focused on cultivating a robust AI workforce, the mission offers fellowships for students at different educational levels and establishes data labs across the country to train youth in AI-related skills.

  • Startup Support: The mission includes targeted initiatives to support AI startups at various stages of growth, ensuring continuous innovation in the sector.

2. Development of India’s Own AI Infrastructure

India is setting its sights on developing domestic capabilities in AI hardware and foundational models:

  • Domestic GPUs: In a move towards self-reliance, India plans to develop its own GPUs over the next 3-5 years. This initiative will reduce dependency on foreign manufacturers like NVIDIA and enhance AI computing capacity.

  • Large Language Models (LLMs): India is building its own LLM to address the unique linguistic, cultural, and societal context of the country. The launch of a domestic foundational AI platform is expected by the end of 2025, which will provide AI solutions tailored for India’s diverse languages and cultures.

3. AI Governance and Ethical Practices

India is positioning itself as a global leader in ethical AI development:

  • AI for India 2030: This initiative aims to address India’s socio-economic challenges by aligning AI technologies with the country’s development goals.

  • AI Ethics and Safety: India is collaborating with academic institutions on projects that focus on AI safety, deepfake detection, watermarking AI outputs, and machine unlearning—a technique that allows AI to discard outdated, incorrect, or biased data intentionally.

4. AI Centers of Excellence

India has established several Centers of Excellence in collaboration with top academic institutions to focus on AI applications in critical sectors:

  • Agriculture: Leveraging AI to improve farming practices and boost productivity.
  • Healthcare: Using AI to enhance diagnostics, treatment, and healthcare access.
  • Smart Mobility: AI solutions for efficient urban transport systems.

In addition, a Centre of Excellence for AI in Education is being set up with a ₹500 crore investment, and five National Centres of Excellence for Skilling will provide youth with the necessary industry-relevant skills for AI development.

5. Global Expansion of India’s Digital Infrastructure

India is expanding its digital public infrastructure solutions globally:

  • Aadhar and UPI are being adopted by 18-19 countries, with platforms like DigiLocker and the Digital Mission being shared globally.

  • India’s AI solutions are increasingly being shared with low- and middle-income countries, contributing to global digital inclusivity.

Challenges India Faces in Advancing AI

While India is making significant progress, several challenges remain on its path to fully realizing the potential of AI:

1. Computational Access

The cost of computational power required for large-scale AI models is a significant barrier. As AI models grow in complexity, their computational needs increase, making them expensive and often inaccessible to smaller players in India. This is a critical issue, as the cost of computing is expected to rise by 89% between 2023 and 2025 due to the increased use of generative AI.

2. Scarcity of AI-Ready Data

Another obstacle is the lack of high-quality, AI-ready datasets, particularly those that cater to the specific needs and contexts of India. Data scarcity hampers the development of AI models that can address localized challenges, such as healthcare, agriculture, and urbanization.

3. Dependency on Foreign AI Models

Currently, India relies heavily on foreign AI models, like GPT-4, developed by companies outside India. This dependency limits India’s ability to independently leverage AI and introduces challenges related to licensing, external pricing structures, and policy changes imposed by foreign developers.

4. Infrastructure Constraints

While India is making strides in expanding its AI infrastructure, its dependency on foreign-made GPUs and AI hardware still limits its capacity to scale AI applications. This reliance on imported chips and hardware hinders the pace of development and deployment of AI solutions across the country.

5. Linguistic and Cultural Diversity

India's vast linguistic, cultural, and geographical diversity adds complexity to AI development. AI solutions need to accommodate 22 official languages and countless dialects, which is a significant challenge for applications like speech recognition, natural language processing, and translation services. Crafting AI solutions that are effective across India’s diverse population remains a complex task.

6. Ethical Concerns

As AI technologies advance, ethical concerns around their use and misuse—such as deepfakes, disinformation, and privacy violations—remain critical. Ensuring that AI is used ethically and responsibly is a major challenge. India is working towards addressing these concerns, but ensuring the accountability and transparency of AI systems remains a key area of focus.

India’s Vision for the Future of AI

India's focus on AI for public good is clear, with the India AI Mission leading the charge in creating AI that is inclusive, ethical, and tailored to the needs of Indian society. The country aims to develop its own AI hardware, build homegrown foundational models, and promote AI-powered solutions across critical sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and education.

Moving forward, India faces the challenge of scaling its AI capabilities while ensuring ethical and sustainable development. By addressing computational access, data availability, and infrastructure gaps, India can solidify its position as a leader in the global AI space, creating technology that empowers its people while contributing to global AI governance.