Amitabh Nag Takes Helm of AI Kosh and IndiaAI Applications Development, Boosting India's AI Ecosystem

Bhashini CEO is now also the CEO of AI Kosh, applications development initiative under IndiaAI Mission

Amitabh Nag, CEO of Digital India Bhashini, now also leads AI Kosh and IndiaAI Applications Development. AI Kosh offers datasets and models for AI research, while IndiaAI fosters AI-driven solutions through funding, innovation challenges, and hackathons.Amitabh Nag, the CEO of the Digital India Bhashini Division has been given additional charge as the director of the newly launched AI Kosh (India AI Datasets Platform) and IndiaAI Applications Development initiative, two pillars under the IndiaAI Mission. Nag has been the Bhashini CEO for two years now. Currently, as per its website, AI Kosh launched on March 6, offers 339 datasets and 159 AI models from 17 organisations across 15 sectors, and a library of use cases and toolkits. This initiative seeks to provide researchers and developers with access to crucial datasets, driving advancements across various sectors. Also Read: India's AI race heats up as entrepreneurs, researchers, and startups vie for IndiaAI Mission funding AI Kosh launched with an allocation of Rs. 199.55 crore, is designed to be a unified platform integrating datasets from diverse sources. This includes existing government data platforms and, crucially, non-government data contributors. The platform's objective is to facilitate access to this data for building AI applications. Also Read: Explained: IndiaAI compute portal, AIKosha and other initiatives under the IndiaAI Mission The IndiaAI Application Development initiative allocated Rs. 689.05 crores aims to develop, scale, and promote the adoption of impactful AI solutions to effectively tackle significant problem statements. IndiaAI Innovation challenge was launched on August 13 last year in healthcare, agriculture, governance, climate change, disaster management, and assistive technologies for learning disabilities. The Innovation Challenge was open to Indian innovators, startups, non-profits, students, academic/R&D organisations, and companies. A total of 900 applications were received across the five focus areas by the deadline of September 30 last year. Following a rigorous evaluation process, 30 AI solutions have been shortlisted for the next stage across three stages of maturity: idea, prototype, and existing solutions. Under the IndiaAI Applications Development initiative a CyberGuard AI Hackathon was also launched on October 17 last year for cybercrime prevention in collaboration with the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) and in response 263 responses were received. The 20 shortlisted teams participated in a three-day hackathon and evaluation is underway to identify the winners. Also Read: IndiaAI Mission draws 120 more proposals for sovereign AI models

Bhashini CEO Amitabh Nag Gets Additional Charge As Director Of IndiaAI

Before taking up the chief executive's role at Bhashini, Nag had worked with other government bodies, including electronics and IT ministry, agriculture and farmers' welfare ministry Amitabh Nag, the chief executive officer of the Digital India Bhashini Division, has been given additional charge as the director of the recently launched AIKosha (India AI Datasets Platform) and IndiaAI Applications Development initiative. "I'm given the additional charge as director of India Dataset Platform (AIKosha) & Application Development initiative) at IndiaAI!," Nag said in a LinkedIn post. Nag has been working with Bhashini as CEO since March 2023, overseeing the strategic planning and execution of the platform's initiatives. He is also actively a director at Digital India Corporation, a member of the GPAI Working Group, as well as an independent director at National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd. Before taking up the chief executive's role at Bhashini, he had worked with other government bodies, including electronics and IT ministry, agriculture and farmers' welfare ministry. With about 43 years of experience across diverse industries, both public and private, he has worked with MNCs such as Tata Consultancy Services, HP and Coforge, among others. AIKosha: AIKosha was launched earlier this month under the IndiaAI Mission, offering a repository of 300 datasets, 80 AI models and other tools to foster AI innovation in the country. The portal also features AI sandbox capabilities via integrated development environment along with tools and tutorials. Additionally, it is equipped with features such as content discoverability, scoring of datasets, permission based access and security mechanisms, secure APIs and firewalls. This is being offered to startups, researchers, students, startups and government agencies, allowing them to access AI compute, network, storage and cloud services at "discounted rates." Eligible AI users will receive up to 40% subsidy on AI compute services on cloud. Recently, IndiaAI Mission received over 120 additional bids to build foundational models trained on Indian datasets, as of March 15, bringing the overall number of applications received to 187. Under the IndiaAI Mission, the Centre has launched several other key initiatives, including the IndiaAI Compute Portal, which will offer affordable AI compute, network, storage and cloud services. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Lok Sabha secretariat signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop an AI-powered solution, the Sansad Bhashini, owing to better democratise parliamentary operations, a week ago. Centre's Push To AI: This also comes at a time when the Centre is giving a huge push to the development of AI models in the country through its IndiaAI mission. In January, union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reportedly said that India is planning to build its own domestic large language model (LLM) as part of the INR 10,037 Cr IndiaAI Mission. The government has also selected 10 companies that will supply 18,693 graphics processing units or GPUs -- high end chips needed to develop machine learning tools that can go into developing a foundational model. As per Inc42, the homegrown GenAI market is expected to see a major boom in the coming years and will likely cross the $17 Bn mark by 2030.

Amitabh Nag Takes On Additional Role As Director Of IndiaAI And AI Kosh

Amitabh Nag, the CEO of BHASHINI - (Digital India BHASHINI Division), has taken on the role of Director for IndiaAI's AI Kosh (India Dataset Platform) and the Application Development Initiative, marking a significant step in advancing the country's AI ecosystem. Taking to the professional networking site LinkedIn to share his excitement, he posted, "I'm happy to share that I'm given the Additional Charge as Director (India Dataset Platform (AIkosh) & Application Development initiative) at IndiaAI!"