Paris AI action summit: What is India pitching for
At the Paris Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is co-chairing in Paris, India will not only represent the voice of the Global South in the key sector, but also pitch itself as a world leader in the segment.
Government sources said India was already witnessing a transformative revolution in Artificial Intelligence and for the first time in India’s history, the government is directly fostering an AI ecosystem where computing power, graphics processing units, and research opportunities are available at an affordable cost.
“The government has ensured that AI is not just for a privileged few and were not dominated by big tech companies and global giants. Through ground-breaking policies, the government is enabling students, startups, and innovators to access world-class AI infrastructure, creating a truly level playing field. Be it the IndiaAI mission or establishing Centers of Excellence for AI, all these initiatives intend to improve the country’s ecosystem,” sources said.
At the heart of India’s AI landscape is the IndiaAI Mission approved last year with an allocation of Rs 10,300 crore.
This funding is slated over the next five years, and is poised to catalyse various components of the IndiaAI Mission.
Sources said backed by a high-end common computing facility, the India AI mission is now closer to customising indigenous AI solutions for the Indian context using Indian languages.
“The AI model is beginning with the computation facility of roughly 10000 GPUs. Soon the remaining 8693 GPUs will be added,” they said as India plans to significantly boost computing power by doubling the number of GPUs empanelled.
Officials said in 10 months of the launch of India AI Mission, the nodal ministry has been able to get an unprecedented response and create a high end and robust common computing facility of about 18,693 Graphic Processing Unit, GPUs.
“It is about nine times of what Open Source Model DeepSeek has and about two third of what ChatGPT has,” they added flagging that India is the only country that has pioneered the opening of India's GPU marketplace and the first government to open the GPU marketplace in India, enabling small startups, researchers, and students to access high-performance computing resources, unlike major countries where the AI market is often dominated by large industry players.
Democratisation of AI space is India’s strength, sources said adding that the government will make available 18,000 high-end GPU-based compute facilities for AI development to entities in the country in the next couple of days and out of that, 10,000 are already available.
The government has also selected 10 companies that will supply 18,693 GPUs, they noted.
Additionally, India will develop its own Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) in the next three to five years, and a domestic foundational AI platform can be expected in the next 10 months.
The government also has plans to launch a common compute facility where startups and researchers can access computing power.
“While global GPU access costs around $2.5-$3 per hour, the Modi government will offer it at just $1 per hour. The researchers, startups, academicians, colleges, IITs, all of them can have access to this compute power, and they can start foundational models,” they said.
IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had in January announced that India was working on foundational AI models tailored to the country’s unique cultural and linguistic heritage.
He also said there are six developers who can develop the AI foundational models in the next six to eight months and may be earlier.
India’s AI market is experiencing exponential growth, as highlighted by the BCG-NASSCOM Report 2024. The AI market will grow at CAGR of 25-35 per cent, emphasising innovation and job creation potential. While AI automates routine tasks, it generates new job opportunities in data science, machine learning, and AI-driven applications.
