Meity forms task force to draft roadmap for IndiaAI ecosystem by April end

The Ministry of Electronics and IT on Monday set up a task force for framing a draft roadmap for the artificial intelligence ecosystem by end of April.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar after consultation with startups and IT companies working on artificial intelligence announced setting up of an IndiaAI platform which will focus on boosting research and facilitating tools required for the start-up community for growth.

"IndiaAI platform will focus on promoting Indian Startups, Research and Innovation. I expect task force to come up with design of IndiaAI by end of April," Chandrasekhar said.

According to estimates, AI is expected to add USD 967 billion to the Indian economy by 2035 and USD 450500 billion to India's GDP by 2025, accounting for 10 per cent of the country's USD 5 trillion GDP target.

IT industry Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh during the discussion asked the government to prepare a roadmap based on sectors like clean tech, biotech, and space tech.

"If you start with skills. Today we have roughly 500-1000 odd skilled professionals in India. The demand is much more. By 2025, we expect it to go up to a million. Can we say that the under IndiaAI program we all will come together to create a million world-class skilled professionals?" Ghosh said.

Some of the startups demanded availability of authentic data sets for creating solutions. Ministry of Science and Technology backed incubator ARTPARK(AI & Robotics Technology Park) Co-Founder and CEO Umakant Soni asked for enhancing computing nodes for artificial intelligence and providing market support for innovation done by the start-up.

Chandrasekhar asked start-ups and other participants to volunteer for the task force and asked them to put all the building blocks for AI in the country together for the government to take it up.

"IndiaAI will work for the benefit of Indians to deliver better governance, development and create an innovation ecosystem that will contribute to the digital economy," Chandrasekhar said.