India’s AI Revolution

• 11 Mar 2025

For Prelims: Artificial Intelligence, IndiaAI Mission, DeepSeek, BharatGen, Digital India BHASHINI, Semicon India 

For Mains: India’s AI Mission and Global Competitiveness, AI and Economic Growth in India 

Source:PIB

Why in News?

India is undergoing a holistic transformation in Artificial Intelligence (AI), led by proactive government policies under the IndiaAI Mission.  

• This initiative aligns with the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047, positioning India as a global AI powerhouse. 

How is India Transforming into a Global AI Powerhouse?

• Strengthening AI Infrastructure: The government is setting up a high-end computing center with 18,693 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), nearly 9 times more than DeepSeek and two-thirds of ChatGPT’s capacity. 
  • Open GPU Marketplace allows startups, researchers, and students to access affordable high-performance computing. 
  • India aims to develop its own GPUs within 3-5 years, reducing dependency on foreign technology such as Quantum chips. 
  • IndiaAI Dataset Platform provides high-quality, anonymized datasets for AI research and development. 
  • India has established AI Centres of Excellence(CoEs) in Healthcare, Agriculture, and Sustainable Cities in New Delhi. Union Budget 2025 allocated Rs 500 crore for a new AI CoE in Education. 
• AI Skilling: Five National AI Skilling Centres will train youth for AI industries, aligning with Make for India, Make for the World vision.  
  • National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 integrates AI education at all levels.  
  • India ranks 1st in Global AI Skill Penetration (Stanford AI Index 2024), with 263% AI talent growth since 2016 and a 14 times rise in AI-skilled workforce (2016-2023). 
  • India has around 520 tech incubators and accelerators, making India 3rd largest startup ecosystem globally. 
• Indigenous AI Models: BharatGen world’s first government-funded multimodal Large Language Model (LLM) initiative for AI-driven public services. 
  • Sarvam-1, a 2-billion-parameter model supporting 10 Indian languages for translation and content generation. 
  • AI Kosha is a government-backed platform designed to provide non-personal datasets to help businesses, researchers, and startups develop AI solutions. 
  • Digital India BHASHINI is an AI-powered language translation platform for digital accessibility. 
  • Chitralekha is an open-source video transcreation tool for Indic languages. 
• AI with Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): AI integrated with Aadhaar, Unified Payments Interface (UPI),  DigiLocker to improve efficiency. 
  • AI-driven crowd monitoring optimized railway passenger movement, and MuleHunter.AI developed by Reserve Bank of India to detect mule bank accounts used for fraud and money laundering. 
• AI-Driven Economic Growth: 80% of Indian companies prioritize AI as a core strategic goal. 69% plan to increase AI investments in 2025. 
  • Indian Generative AI (GenAI) startup funding surged 6 times, reaching USD 51 million in FY2025 (NASSCOM Report). 
  • India holds 16% of the world’s AI talent, driving AI-powered automation, fintech, and healthcare. 
  • 78% of Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) using AI reported revenue growth. 
  • India’s AI market is projected to grow at 25-35% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). AI talent demand is expected to reach 1 million by 2026. 
• AI Regulation: India's AI regulation framework includes the Information Technology Act of 2000, Principles for Responsible AI (2021) and National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (2018) to ensure safety, transparency, and accountability. 
  • India is avoiding overregulation while addressing risks like deep fakes, privacy, and cybersecurity threats. 
• Global AI Governance Leadership: India is actively shaping international AI regulatory frameworks by hosting the Global INDIAai Summit 2024 and showcasing its AI initiatives at G20, Paris AI Summit 2025 and Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit.

What is IndiaAI Mission? 

Click here to Read: IndiaAI Mission 

 

What are the Concerns in India’s AI Transformation? 

• Limited AI Hardware Capabilities: India is still dependent on foreign-made GPUs and semiconductor technologies. 
  • Many AI startups depend on cloud computing services from global tech giants (AWS, Google, Microsoft). 
  • Limited Indian AI chip manufacturing means startups must rely on foreign-made AI chips. 
• Skilling Challenges: While India leads in AI skill penetration, there is a shortage of highly specialized AI researchers. Most AI professionals are engaged in service-based roles rather than deep-tech innovation. 
  • Automation could displace up to 60 million workers in India's manufacturing sector by 2030. Uneven AI adoption in rural and Tier-2/Tier-3 cities is widening the digital divide. 
• Ethical Concerns: Risks of bias in AI models due to insufficiently diverse datasets. 
  • No dedicated AI law to regulate data usage, facial recognition, and deepfake risks. 
• Regulatory Uncertainty: India lacks a dedicated AI regulatory framework, current policies are fragmented across different ministries. 
  • Comprehensive AI ethics guidelines are absent, leaving bias, accountability, and transparency unaddressed.  
• Environmental Impact: AI hardware and data centers contribute 1% of global GHG emissions, expected to double by 2026. India lacks regulations on AI data centers' water usage and carbon footprint.

What Steps Can India Take to Address AI Transformation Challenges? 

• Strengthening AI Hardware: Boost domestic AI chip manufacturing under Semicon India Programme. Incentivize fabless chip design startups and AI hardware R&D.  
  • Support development of quantum AI processors through the National Quantum Mission. 
• AI Workforce: Expand FutureSkills Prime to train young individuals in AI and digital technologies, reinforcing India’s position as a Digital Talent Nation. 
• AI Regulatory Framework: Enact a dedicated AI & Quantum Act to regulate AI development and its environmental impact, drawing inspiration from the EU AI Act (2024) and the US Artificial Intelligence Environmental Impacts Act (2024). 
• Ensuring Inclusive AI Growth: Under RAISE 2020, promote AI as a tool for social transformation, inclusion, and empowerment through responsible development. 
• Sustainable AI Development: Design AI algorithms and infrastructures that consume less energy and integrate AI into smart grids to optimize power use.  

Drishti Mains Question: 

Discuss India’s transformative shift in Artificial Intelligence (AI), what steps should India take to ensure sustainable AI development? 

UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Questions (PYQs) 

Q. With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? (2020)

1. Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units 
2. Create meaningful short stories and songs 
3. Disease diagnosis 
4. Text-to-Speech Conversion 
5. Wireless transmission of electrical energy 

Select the correct answer using the code given below: 

(a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only 
(b) 1, 3 and 4 only  
(c) 2, 4 and 5 only  
(d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 

Ans: (b)

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Mains:

Q. Introduce the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI). How does AI help clinical diagnosis? Do you perceive any threat to the privacy of the individual in the use of AI in healthcare? (2023)