MeitY Seeks Cabinet Approval for Rs.10,000 Crore India AI Program

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is set to seek cabinet approval for the India AI program. It is a significant move made by the ministry towards advancing India’s capabilities in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The proposal includes a substantial investment of over Rs.10,000 crore and aims to establish GPU-based servers in a public-private partnership.

The AI initiative follows the recommendations of working groups formed by the government on AI, suggesting the creation of a three-tier compute infrastructure with 24,500 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of Electronics and IT highlighted the program’s worth and confirmed its submission for cabinet approval during the inauguration of Synopsys, a semiconductor-focused software company.

This India AI program may operate under a public-private partnership model by leveraging computer infrastructure capacity in both private data centers and those run by public firm CDAC. Chandrasekhar also acknowledged the increased demand for GPU-based servers, emphasizing their ability to process data at higher speeds compared to CPU-based servers.

As of now, the United States and China are lead players in computing infrastructure essential for AI technology development. The proposed program aims to bring this gap by establishing cutting-edge AI computing infrastructure at five locations, offering 3,000 AI Petaflops computing power. This mentioned capacity exceeds the highest installed capacity by 15 times. The working groups recommend the creation of an Inference Farm (2,500 AI PF) and Edge Compute (500 AI PF) systems.

India has already made significant strides in supercomputing with the National Supercomputing Mission witnessing an investment of Rs.1,218.14 crore in the last eight years to set up 24 PetaFlops compute capacity. The new AI program is a testament to the government’s vision to foster innovation and technological advancement.

Chandrasekhar, while inaugurating Synopsys’ Chip Design Centre, emphasized the importance of innovation and rapid progress facilitated by companies like Synopsys in propelling India’s tech and digital ecosystem forward. He also noted that the focus is on both manufacturing and innovation in the semiconductor industry, and significant progress is being made.

The proposed India AI program with its substantial investment and strategic approach, aligns with the nation’s aspirations to become a global leader in AI and emerging technologies, while fostering innovation and economic growth.