Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Railways, Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on March 19 said a collaboration between India AI Mission and the Gates Foundation, an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, is on the cards.
In a post on X, Vaishnaw said an MoU will soon be signed to create AI-based solutions to strengthen several critical sectors in the country.
“AI solutions for better crops, stronger healthcare, smarter education and climate resilience— MoU soon between India AI Mission and @gatesfoundation,” Vaishnaw tweeted after meeting Gates who is currently visiting the country.
In a bid to make access to quality datasets easier for developing AI technologies, the government recently took a big step in its India AI Mission by launching AIKosha, the country’s sovereign datasets platform, and an AI Compute Portal.
The Government has also set a target of developing GPUs domestically within the next three to five years. This is part of the larger Rs 10,000-crore IndiaAI Mission.
The AI Compute Portal will allow companies to access subsidised GPUs for research and development. As of now, about 14,000 GPUs have gone live, with another 4,000 in the pipeline.
Earlier, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had announced the procurement of 18,693 GPUs from selected vendors.
According to Vaishnaw, ministries related to agriculture, weather forecasting, and Bhashini have already provided data to the platform. “India’s own AI foundational model is progressing well; we have 67 applications, of which 22 are for developing large language models (LLMs),” Vaishnaw said earlier this month. The significant part of India’s compute capacity will be used for developing sovereign AI models.
Meanwhile, Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had visited NITI Aayog’s Viksit Bharat Strategy Room (VBSR) and experienced an advanced AI-enabled immersive centre designed to enhance evidence-based decision making for policymakers across the country. The ‘Viksit Bharat Strategy Room’ was launched on March 7, 2024, as a revolutionary step in data-driven governance.
