India is witnessing a transformative revolution in
Artificial Intelligence, and at the heart of this change is the visionary
leadership of PM Modi. For the first time in India’s history, the government is
directly fostering an AI ecosystem where computing power, GPUs, and research
opportunities are available at an affordable cost.
The Modi 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, Modi 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 Centres of
Excellence for AI, all these initiatives by Modi government intends to improve
the country’s ecosystem.
Let us have a look on what Modi government is doing to make
India a Global AI Leader:
IndiaAI Mission:
Pioneering Accessible AI
Marking a significant step towards bolstering India’s AI
ecosystem, the Modi government in 2024 approved the IndiaAI Mission with
allocation of `10,300 crore. This funding slated over the next five years, is
poised to catalyse various components of the IndiaAI Mission.
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.
GPU Infrastructure
and Open GPU Market
Within 10 months of the launch of IndiaAI 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.
Notably, the Modi government has pioneered the opening of
India’s GPU marketplace and it is 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.
The Modi 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.
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 will soon 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.
India AI Dataset
Platform: Enabling AI Innovation with Open Data
Data is the fuel that drives AI research and innovation, and
without rich, diverse, and abundant datasets, even the most skilled data
scientists and developers face limitations. Recognising this, the Modi
government has been actively working to make open datasets accessible to the
larger research community.
The government through the IndiaAI Dataset Platform aims to
streamline access to high-quality, non-personal datasets, creating a unified
data platform that enables seamless access for Indian startups and researchers,
accelerating AI-driven innovation. This AI dataset platform will have the
largest collection of anonymised data which will drive innovation and enhance
capabilities of AI applications.
Establishment of AI
Centres of Excellence
In 2023, the Modi government announced the establishment of
three AI Centres of Excellence (CoE) focused on Healthcare, Agriculture, and
Sustainable Cities in New Delhi. The Budget 2025 announced setting up a new
centre of excellence for AI for education with an outlay of INR 500 crore. The
CoE for AI in education is the fourth such centre to be announced.
The government also revealed plans for 5 National Centres of
Excellence for Skilling, designed to equip youth with industry-relevant
expertise. These centres will be set up with global partnerships to support
Make for India, Make for the World manufacturing.
India’s Foundational
Large Language Models
India is not only developing a robust AI ecosystem but has
already made significant strides in creating foundational AI models. The
government has ensured that India’s AI advancements are indigenous. IndiaAI has
launched a significant initiative to develop indigenous foundational AI models,
including LLMs and SLMs, through a call for proposals.
One of the standout achievements is Digital India BHASHINI,
India’s AI-led language translation platform which seeks to enable easy access
to the internet and digital services in Indian languages, including voice-based
access, and help the creation of content in Indian languages.
BharatGen the World’s First Government Funded Multimodal LLM
Initiative: BharatGen, is a generative AI, was launched in India in
2024, in Delhi. The initiative is designed to revolutionise public service
delivery and boost citizen engagement by developing a suite of foundational
models in language, speech, and computer vision. BharatGen includes a
consortium of top AI researchers across premier academic institutions in India.
Sarvam-1 AI Model: This innovative large language model is
optimised explicitly for Indian languages, addressing a critical gap in the AI
landscape. Sarvam-1, boasting 2 billion parameters, supports ten major Indian
languages, demonstrating its potential to revolutionise various applications
such as language translation, text summarisation, and content generation.
Chitralekha: It is an open-source video transcreation platform
developed by AI4Bhsarat. Leveraging advanced AI models, Chitralekha empowers
users to generate and edit audio transcripts in various Indic languages
effortlessly. The platform’s open-source nature encourages community
contributions and fosters innovation in AI-powered video processing.
SML’s Hanooman has unveiled Everest 1.0, a versatile
multilingual AI system designed to cater to various Indian languages, including
Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Telugu. The system currently supports 35 languages
and is poised to expand its language capabilities to 90 shortly.
India Leads Global AI
Talent and Skill Penetration
AI Talent Pipeline and
AI Education Beyond Metro Cities
Under the IndiaAI Future Skills initiative, AI courses will
be expanded across undergraduate, postgraduate, and Ph.D. programmes.
Additionally, fellowships are being provided to full-time Ph.D. scholars
researching AI in the top 50 NIRF-ranked research institutes.
To ensure inclusive access to AI education, the government
is setting up Data and AI Labs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. These labs will
offer foundational AI courses to a broader demographic. A model IndiaAI Data
Lab has already been established at the National Institute of Electronics and
Information Technology (NIELIT) in Delhi.
India Ranks 1st in
Global AI Skill Penetration
According to the Stanford AI Index 2024, India leads
globally in AI skill penetration. India ranks first globally in AI skill
penetration with a score of 2.8, surpassing the US (2.2) and Germany (1.9). The
country has also witnessed a remarkable 263% growth in AI talent concentration
since 2016, positioning itself as a major global player in AI.
India also leads in AI Skill Penetration for Women with a
penetration rate of 1.7, followed by the US (1.2) and Israel (0.9). This
achievement signifies India’s ongoing efforts to bridge gender disparity in AI
skill development.
Growing Presence in
AI Innovation
When it comes to innovation and technology, Indian youth are
among the best. India has emerged as the fastest-growing developer population
globally, ranking second in public generative AI projects on GitHub.India is positioning itself as an innovation
hub for AI, housing 16% of the world’s AI talent and demonstrating rapid
adoption of AI skills.
India among Top 5
Fastest-growing AI Talent Hubs
The “India Skills Report 2024” by Wheebox forecasts that
India’s AI industry will reach USD 28.8 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 45%.
Additionally, the AI-skilled workforce in India has seen a 14-fold increase
from 2016 to 2023. India stands among the top five fastest-growing AI talent
hubs, alongside Singapore, Finland, Ireland, and Canada.The projected demand for AI professionals in
India is anticipated to hit around 1 million by 2026.
India’s GenAI
ecosystem Grows Remarkably Amid Global Downturn
According to a report by NASSCOM in November 2024, India’s
Generative AI ecosystem has grown remarkably amid a global downturn. It said
that Indian GenAI startup funding, at about USD 51 million in Q2FY2025, saw
over 6 times rise quarter-on-quarter, led by B2B and agentic AI startups. The
evolution of the Indian GenAI ecosystem from experimental use cases to
scalable, production-ready solutions is reflected in its growing maturity.
India is leading in
AI Adoption
According to a recent report compiled by BCG, India is leading
in AI adoption, with 80% of companies identifying AI as a core strategic
priority, surpassing the global average of 75%. It revealed that 69% of Indian
companies plan to increase their tech investments in 2025, with one-third of
these companies set to allocate over $25 million to AI initiatives. This
reflects the nation’s drive towards a comprehensive digital transformation
agenda.
According to the Randstad AI & Equity Report 2024, AI
has made rapid inroads into workplaces in India, with seven in 10 employees
using some form of AI at work in 2024, up from 5 in 10 a year earlier.
The Continuous Rise
of Indian AI
By leveraging AI-driven technologies such as autonomous
agents, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are unlocking efficient ways
to scale, delivering personalised customer experiences and optimising
back-office operations. According to a report by ‘Salesforce’, as many as 78%
of small and SMBs in India using AI have reported revenue growth. 93% of Indian
SMBs surveyed said AI has helped increase revenues.
AI Market Growth in
India
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%, 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.
Growing Network of
Accelerators
India is home to 520+ tech incubators and accelerators.
India has the third-largest number of active programs in the world, with 42% of
programs set up in the past five years to support the needs of Indian startups.
Accelerators like T-Hub MATH provide AI startups with
crucial guidance on product development, business strategy, and scaling. For
instance, in the initial months of 2024, MATH had over 60 startups under its
fold, and five of them are under discussion for funding.
