India’s Push for Sovereign AI: A Strategic Vision

December 1, 2023

India is positioning itself as a tech-driven nation, emphasizing its success with Aadhaar and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as governance solutions. Now, the focus is on establishing sovereign artificial intelligence (AI), a crucial step towards leveraging technology for economic development.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Sovereign AI

India’s Minister of State for Electronics, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, highlights the need for sovereign AI, moving beyond dependence on global AI ecosystems. The government aims to apply its DPI approach, where state-sanctioned technology forms the foundation for private entities to develop diverse applications.

Real-Life Use Cases

The vision extends beyond generative AI models, emphasizing practical applications in healthcare, agriculture, governance, language translation, and more. The goal is to harness AI for tangible economic impact.

National Data Governance Framework Policy

The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) unveiled the National Data Governance Framework Policy, proposing the creation of an India Datasets platform. This platform, housing non-personal and anonymized datasets, is designed to be accessible to startups and researchers, fostering innovation.

Objectives and Monetization

The policy aims to modernize government data collection, improving governance and facilitating AI and data-led research. Non-personal data within the India datasets platform can potentially be monetized, contributing to economic growth.

AI Regulation in India

India’s approach to AI regulation combines elements from Europe and the US. It integrates citizen rights and market regulation, presenting a hybrid model. The government is considering a directive for big tech companies, such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon, to share anonymized personal data with a government-backed database.

Future Legislation and Economic Benefits

While a Digital India Bill is under consideration, it won’t be released before the 2024 general election. The proposed directive aligns with the vision of economic benefits derived from aggregated non-personal datasets, originally suggested by a MeitY-appointed committee chaired by Kris Gopalakrishnan.

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