Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said that the country is expecting an investment of $200 billion in AI data infrastructure over the next two years.
“We can see the interest of the global leaders, that’s visible. We can see the investment opportunity that is today accountable. It’s going to be probably over the next two years, more than $200 billion worth of investment is likely to come,” the minister of electronics and information technology said while addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit in the national capital.
“Investments are coming across all five layers of the AI stack,” he said, outlining huge interest in infrastructure and energy levels. The five layers of the AI stack include energy, chips, infrastructure, models and applications.
Referring to energy capacity, Vaishnaw said that “India is among the rare countries where more than 50 per cent of power generation capacity comes from clean sources.”
Sovereign AI
In the press conference, Vaishnaw also announced that the government will soon launch AI Mission 2.0, focusing on taking artificial intelligence to farmers, rural communities, healthcare and teachers through a trusted “AI like UPI” model. This will help improve services for teachers, farmers, healthcare workers and others.
He assured that better infrastructure would be provided for developing this model. For AI Mission 2.0, there will be a need to prepare a large infrastructure for sovereign models.
“Sovereign AI means building our own AI models to avoid dependence for strategic needs. It includes capabilities across chips, infrastructure, control systems and deployment, ensuring India can develop and scale solutions independently without external approvals,” he said.
Deepfake regulation
Stressing that the deepfakes problem requires stronger regulation, the IT minister said that the government has begun consultations with the industry on additional safeguards beyond those already in place.
“I think we need much stronger regulations on deepfakes. It is a problem growing day by day, and certainly there is a need for protecting our children and our society from these harms... we have initiated a dialogue with industry on what kind of regulation will be needed beyond what we already have,” the minister said, mentioning that the parliamentary committee has also studied the issue and made certain recommendations.
Apology for Day 1
Responding to reports of mismanagement and poor queue management on the opening day, Vaishnaw apologised for the inconvenience faced by attendees and assured efforts to make it smoother.
“If anybody faced any problems yesterday, my apologies for that,” he said.
Amid the confusion at the venue on day 1, a few reported misplaced or stolen goods. Dhananjay Yadav, CEO of Neo Sapien, took to X to complain about his wearables being stolen. “At 12 noon, security personnel arrived to sanitise and cordon off the area ahead of the visit by PM Modi,” he wrote. “I explained that we’re building India’s first patented AI wearable at NeoSapien and requested a chance to showcase it.”
One officer let him stay, but then another group came and ordered him to leave immediately. “Should we take our wearables? Yadav asked the officers. They said, "Others are leaving even laptops behind, security will take care.” Later, Yadav found that the wearables were stolen.
