India's IT ecosystem employs over 6 million people: Govt

Hans India

4 days ago

New Delhi: India has a strong information technology ecosystem which generates annual revenues of more than $250 billion and provides employment to more than 6 million people, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
Global rankings such as Stanford AI rankings place India among the top countries in AI skills, capabilities, and policies to use AI. India is also the second-largest contributor to GitHub AI projects, showcasing its vibrant developer community, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Jitin Prasada said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
He pointed out that India's AI strategy is based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to democratise the use of technology. It aims to address India-centric challenges, create economic and employment opportunities for all Indians.
India's AI strategy aims to position India as a global leader in artificial intelligence.
The government launched the IndiaAI mission in March 2024. It is a strategic initiative to establish a robust and inclusive AI ecosystem aligned with India's development goals.
The minister highlighted the seven-pillar strategy that the government is implementing under the IndiaAI Mission, which includes IndiaAI Compute Capacity aimed at providing high-end compute power (GPUs) to all, including MSMEs and startups, at an affordable cost.
IndiaAI Foundation Models project has also been launched to develop India's Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) trained on Indian datasets and languages. This is to ensure sovereign capability and global competitiveness in generative AI.
To develop large datasets for training AI models, AIKosh has been developed as a unified data platform integrating datasets from government and non-government sources.
IndiaAI Application Development Initiative has also been launched to develop AI applications for India-specific challenges in sectors such as climate change and disaster management, healthcare, agriculture, governance, and assistive technologies for learning disabilities.
IndiaAIFutureSkills project has been rolled out to develop AI-skilled professionals in India by increasing the number of graduates, post-graduates and PhDs in the AI domain. It also envisions setting up Data and AI Labs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India.
IndiaAI Startup Financing has been set up to provide financial assistance to AI start-ups. Besides, the Government is laying emphasis on safe and trusted AI to balance innovation with strong governance frameworks to ensure responsible AI adoption, the minister added.