Informist, Monday, May 6, 2024

--Source: Budget to provide 10 bln rupees for IndiaAI Mission in FY25

--CONTEXT: Cabinet approved 103 bln rupee IndiaAI Mission for 5 years

--Source: IT min to launch IndiaAI Mission under its 100-day agenda

By Krity Ambey and Sagar Sen

NEW DELHI – The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is likely to launch the IndiaAI Mission under its 100-day agenda with an allocation of 10 bln rupees for 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), a government official said. The Cabinet in March approved the mission to bolster India's artificial intelligence ecosystem with an outlay of 103 bln rupees for five years.

The government is likely to allocate the funds for the IndiaAI Mission to the IT ministry in the full Budget for 2024-25 in July, the official told Informist. The government presented an Interim Budget in February on account of the General Election. A full Budget will be presented in July by the government that takes office after the election.

Of the total outlay of 103 bln rupees for the IndiaAI Mission, the government will spend the major chunk of over 50 bln rupees to create computing infrastructure by deploying about 10,000 graphics processing units or GPUs, the official said. "This will be implemented in public-private partnership."

Under the IndiaAI Mission, the government aims to subsidise private companies looking to set up computing capacity in India, which is the most important element of an AI ecosystem. Under the programme, the government will also provide seed funding for AI-related start-ups.

"The next major chunk, which is roughly about 2,000 crore (20 bln) rupees, would go towards developing a foundation for a large multimedia model based on Indian data sets," the official said.

The government will also spend 10 bln rupees to skill human resources under the AI mission, the official said. "The foundation model will take some time to develop, the GPUs (graphics processing units) will take about 18-24 months to be installed."

"The GPU money will get spent in the first three years, the others will get distributed over five years," the official said. The major part of the spending under the mission is likely to happen in the second year, which is 2025-26, the official added.

The IT ministry is set to launch the scheme within the first 100 days of the new government taking office, the official said. Government departments are currently working on a 100-day agenda, a list of measures to be implemented in the first 100 days of the new government. The incumbent Narendra Modi government has said the 100-day agenda will help to achieve 'Viksit Bharat', the stated goal of making the country a developed economy by 2047. End

Edited by Rajeev Pai

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.