India is increasingly becoming a major player in the global artificial intelligence (AI) industry, with a compelling mix of government initiatives, growing startup network, and a large base of technical talent coming into play. T
his collective push is not just reshaping India’s industries, it’s also helping advance AI around the world.
The Indian government has realised the importance of AI development and is strategically focusing on the advancements of AI via the IndiaAI mission and has dedicated a large corpus of funds to construct an AI strong AI ecosystem. This will involve setting up Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in priority sectors including health, agriculture, and sustainable cities.
Additionally, the locating of the national AI computing infrastructure will bring access to high-end intelligence computation within reach of average people, enabling AI to reach every corner of the country for research and for development.
A new shared compute resource, providing GPU access at drastically reduced cost is on the horizon, driving innovation from startups and researchers.
India’s advantage also is its robust AI talent pool. In the Stanford AI Index 2024, India’s AI skill penetration was ranked number one in the world overtaking the US and Germany. India’s skilled AI workforce has grown at a stunning rate of 14 to 16-fold between 2016 and 2023, turning the country in a major global AI powerhouse.
The requirement for AI professionals in India is expected to rise to one million by 2026, again showing the tremendous growth in this field.
There are a few AI models/platforms being developed in India, which are being recognized internationally. BharatGen, leverages the first ever multimodal Large Language Model (LLM) backed by government funding in the world, which is set to transform the way Governance and Public Service is delivered.
Sarvam-1 is an LLM model specifically optimized for Indian languages and supports ten major Indian languages, unifying the linguistic diversity in AI applications.
Other such amazing platforms include Digital India BHASHINI for language translation and Chitralekha for video transcreation in Indic languages which are demonstrating India’s effort to have an inclusive AI ecosystem.
There is also an exponential growth in Indian AI startup ecosystem. On the other hand, startups are crafting innovative AI solutions across sectors such as healthcare, fintech, agritechand edtech. These are new solutions being funded and with potential to solve challenges within and outside the country.
India’s one-of-a-kind digital platforms, Aadhaar and UPI for instance, offer a strong backbone to implement AI solutions at scale. This, combined with an active government and a burgeoning innovation ecosystem, is creating a solid base to position India as a major influencer in defining the future of AI around the world.
With India further dedicating itself to research, talent development and infrastructure, its AI innovation will have an increasingly significant influence globally, and this in turn will be the boost to technology and socio-economic enhancements.
