India’s National Programme on AI initiated in 2018 has not made sufficient progress. India’s AI mission backed by a budged of $1.2 billion is amazingly very low, when compared with international benchmarks. Under CHIPS and Science Act, the US has committed $280 billion plus in private AI ventures. The Chinese government has invested $208 billion plus in AI startups. India is spending only a fraction of this. The US has proposed $500 billion Stargate programme.
The US wants to strengthen its technological position in the 21st century, especially in emerging technologies. In fact, the US restricts the export of advanced AI chips and model weights. It can restrict India’s effects to build advanced AI capabilities. Additionally, access to large pre-trained AI models and their weights is crucial for applications. It could force India to rely on outdated models or to spend heavily to build its own models from scratch.
The US restrictions extend to cloud computing, critical frameworks such as Tensor Flow and PyTorch. It restricts India’s R&D efforts.
India STEM manpower has a quality deficit. India’s engineers do not have skills required for advanced AI R&D. Indian academia is outdated. Indian industry operates in silos. India has become a consumer of AI technologies developed abroad. This environment is not conducive for innovation.
India should be favourable to industries from abroad, e.g. Tesla and Starlink. India should be flexible to e-commerce. India can improve its defence ties. Indian market alone will not compensate for India’s inability to produce intellectual property, foster talent and creation of infrastructure.
India cannot afford to be complacent. It should wake up from AI slumber.
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