IndiaAI Mission: AI Kosha & Common Compute Drive India's AI Revolution

What’s in Today’s Article?

• IndiaAI Mission Latest News
• IndiaAI Mission: Driving AI Innovation in India
• Key Pillars of the IndiaAI Mission
• AI Kosha: India’s National AI Dataset Platform
• IndiaAI Mission FAQ’s

IndiaAI Mission Latest News

• Recently, the IndiaAI Mission launched AI Kosha, a national dataset platform for collecting non-personal data to develop AI models. 
• It also introduced the Common Compute portal, providing startups and academia access to shared GPUs for AI development.

IndiaAI Mission: Driving AI Innovation in India

• The IndiaAI Mission was initially launched as a joint initiative between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Nasscom in 2023. 
• It has since evolved into a government-led initiative with an outlay of ₹10,371.92 crore. 
• The mission's key goals are:
  • "Making AI in India" – Encouraging domestic AI development.
  • "Making AI Work for India" – Ensuring AI benefits various sectors in the country.
• This initiative aims to bolster India’s AI ecosystem by making high-end computing resources accessible to startups and researchers.

Common Compute Facility & GPU Access

• A major initiative under the mission is the Common Compute facility, which provides startups and researchers access to Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)—essential for training and running AI models. 
• Since GPUs are expensive and in high demand globally, IndiaAI is empaneling data centers with GPU resources.

Current GPU Deployment

• 14,000 GPUs have already been acquired and commissioned.
• More GPUs will be added quarterly to expand computing resources.
• The mission will allocate GPU access to selected entities based on need and availability.

Key Pillars of the IndiaAI Mission

• The IndiaAI Mission comprises seven pillars, with a focus on building India’s AI capabilities across various domains.

Common Compute Facility

• Provides GPU access to startups and researchers.
• Aims to reduce dependency on costly foreign computing resources.

AI Kosha (IndiaAI Datasets Platform)

• Develops India-specific datasets to improve AI models.
• Reduces bias from Western-trained AI models by incorporating local language and cultural data.

AI Safety Institute of India (Upcoming)

• Focuses on AI risk assessment and safety guidelines.
• Ensures AI tools are reliable and secure, preventing misuse.

IndiaAI Innovation Centre

• Develops domain-specific foundation models for various industries.

AI Application Development Initiative

• Supports AI-based solutions for commercial and societal applications.

Future Skills Initiative

• Establishes AI labs in smaller cities to foster skill development.

Startup Financing

• Provides financial support to AI startups to boost innovation.

Building India’s Own Foundation Model

• The IndiaAI Mission has invited proposals to develop an indigenous AI foundation model.
• 67 applications have been received, and the government aims to fast-track the process within months.

AI Kosha: India’s National AI Dataset Platform

• AI Kosha is part of the IndiaAI Datasets Platform, aimed at addressing a key challenge in AI development—the dominance of Western-trained models. 
• Many AI models rely heavily on English-language data from developed countries, making them less effective for India’s diverse linguistic and cultural landscape.

Building India-Specific AI Models

• AI Kosha seeks to make India-centric data more accessible for researchers and AI developers.
• It includes datasets such as translation models for Indian languages, helping reduce bias in AI training.

Impact on AI Development

• Open-source AI models provide a foundation, but local datasets are essential to ensure AI tools are relevant and effective for Indian users.
• AI Kosha aims to empower Indian firms to build indigenous generative AI models, reducing reliance on foreign AI tools like OpenAI and Google’s models.

IndiaAI Mission FAQs

Q1. What is the IndiaAI Mission?

Ans. The IndiaAI Mission is a ₹10,371.92 crore government initiative to boost AI development and innovation in India.

Q2. What is AI Kosha?

Ans. AI Kosha is India's national dataset platform, enabling AI models trained on diverse Indian languages and cultural data.

Q3. How does the Common Compute Facility support AI development?

Ans. It provides GPU access to startups and researchers, reducing reliance on costly foreign computing resources.

Q4. Why is IndiaAI building its own foundation model?

Ans. To create indigenous AI models tailored for India's needs, reducing dependency on foreign AI technologies.

Q5. How does AI Kosha reduce AI bias?

Ans. By training AI models on Indian-language datasets, ensuring better cultural and linguistic representation in AI systems.

Source: TH | Forbes