Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday launched the IndiaAI compute portal and a dataset platform AIKosha, among a slew of other initiatives under the IndiaAI Mission, which turns a year old.
A compute portal is a website offering AI-related services on cloud at affordable rates.
The portal will provide students, start-ups, researchers, academia and government departments access to more than 18,000 GPUs, cloud storage and other AI services. GPU or graphics processing unit helps in AI computing which requires more processing power than conventional CPUs.
The minister also launched AIKosha — an all-in-one dataset platform providing resources, tools and expert mentorship to help transform ideas into industry solutions. Datasets will be available for model builders and developers to work with and launch India-specific AI models.
The compute portal will be used to develop India’s own foundational model, Vaishnaw said, adding that the preparedness for India’s own foundation model is progressing well and as many as 67 applications have been received.
In 3-4 years, India should have its own GPUs competing at the global stage, Vaishnaw said, adding that the cost of using these GPUs is historically low at less than ₹100/hour.
MeitY secretary S. Krishnan said the AI Compute Portal is the largest component of the India AI mission with almost about 45 per cent of funds earmarked for it
In March last year, the cabinet approved the IndiaAI mission with a budget outlay of ₹10,371.92 crore.
Speaking at the IESA Vision Summit, Krishnan said the government is also working on the next stage of India Semiconductor Mission.
“The next stage of ISM is in the works. We have had discussions with many of the stakeholders, including many amongst you, as to how to design the programme. The design and the outline is ready, and there’s undergoing detailed discussions internally in the government,” he said.
He said that the first phase of ISM had a total outlay of ₹76,000 crore.
“We have committed more than ₹60,000 crore to the five major units which are currently under construction.”
