India's latest boom: Delhi focuses on artificial intelligence

A huge investment worth 103 billion rupees, equal to approximately 1.25 billion dollars, to be diverted into projects related to artificial intelligence.
Including the development of IT infrastructures and ultra-technological language models.
It's called India Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it is India's latest move to accelerate its economic growth and further reduce the gap with the competition.
The government led by Narendra Modi has made it known that the money mobilized will also be used to finance AI-based startups and to develop artificial intelligence applications for the public sector.
The flagship of the operation should coincide with the Hanooman language model, a sort of Indian ChatGPT that should be able to operate in 11 of the country's 22 official languages.
Presented by Seetha Mahalaxmi Healthcare (Sml) in collaboration with the BharatGPT ecosystem – a research consortium led by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, supported by seven other IITs, in addition to the Department of Science and Technology – Hanooman aims to revolutionize key sectors such as governance, healthcare, education and financial services.
In addition to the support of the Indian government and universities, the project also sees the involvement of a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, Reliance Jio, one of India's main mobile operators, managed by thirty-year-old Akash Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, the man most rich in Asia.
India accelerates on artificial intelligence According to numbers collected by IT body Nasscom, the Indian artificial intelligence market will touch 17 billion dollars by 2027, growing at an annualized rate of 25%-35% between 2024 and 2027, driven not only by increased investment, but also by a thriving talent pool and concerted efforts by companies to upskill their workforce.
India's AI mission will operate on a public-private partnership model and extend graphics processing units (GPUs) as a digital public infrastructure capable of offering technology as a service, but also providing access to targeted funding for AI startups .
Another of the government's objectives is to fill an important investment gap in generative startups.
Just to give an example, between 2013 and 2022, private investments in AI startups in India amounted to just 8 billion dollars, while the United States reached almost 250 billion dollars.
According to Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, “the focus is on developing the entire ecosystem, from computing power to models, from applications to talent, and from data platform to regulatory framework.” The forecast for the AI landscape in India seems encouraging.
The 2023 Stanford AI Index ranks the Asian giant as a global leader in the penetration of AI skills.
It is estimated that through the adoption of GenAI, New Delhi could potentially add $359-438 billion to its GDP in 2029-30, above and beyond baseline estimates.
And in seven years, GenAI's contribution is expected to translate from $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in cumulative GDP.
The Elephant Wildcard “This approval of over Rs 10,300 crore for the IndiaAI program will catalyze the Indian AI ecosystem and position it as a force shaping the future of AI for India and the world” , said India's Deputy IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
During his recent visit to India, Microsoft President and CEO Satya Nadella also highlighted the country's potential in the field of AI.
Saying that the momentum around developers and on-site development is “incredible,” Nadela highlighted that India could surpass the US to become the largest developer community on GitHub by 2027, according to some predictions.
In any case, the Modi government's allocation of funds for AI development is significant as Delhi intends to leverage AI to achieve its goal of Viksit Bharat (Developed India) by 2047.
According to Moody's, with 1, 4 billion people – nearly 18% of the world's population – the economy of the world's most populous nation is expected to grow by about 8% in the current fiscal year.
India also expects to become a $5 trillion economy by 2027-2028, as well as the third largest economy in the world.
Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain could be key catalysts for this rise.
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