Global AI conclave | ‘India is at an inflection point in the AI ecosystem’, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, on Saturday, December 16 said he believes that India is at an inflection point in the artifical intelligence (AI) ecosystem and certainly does not need very large resources to build on it.

“We see AI as a significant bolt on this already galloping economy…We know what it will take to make India AI successful,” Chandrasekhar said during an interaction with CNBC-TV18 Managing Editor Shereen Bhan at the CNBC-TV18 and Moneycontrol Global AI Conclave in Bengaluru.

He sees a significant amount of growth coming from AI and said the government is clear with its ambitions for India to play a leading role in global AI. “We have laid down what is the formula for our innovation ecosystem to succeed and be a strong player in AI,” the minister said.

When asked if the government would come up with a production-linked incentive scheme (PLI) similar to that for semiconductor players, Chandrasekhar said, “We don’t need anything even remotely close to the resources we needed for the semiconductor mission for AI.”

He believes there will be winners from the Indian AI ecosystem in the next few years.

Reflecting on the challenges, he said, "If there’s anything that keeps me awake at night when we talk about semiconductors or AI, it’s the challenge of talent while infra-related issues for AI will get sorted very quickly... What we need to focus on is how we get our academic institutions to create the talent needed for AI."

The minister also stressed the need for a global AI framework very quickly. He said there is a need for a granular set of AI rules that countries can follow and are not vague.