IndiaAI Mission Receives Surge in Proposals for Sovereign AI Models

IndiaAI Mission draws 120 more proposals for sovereign AI models

The IndiaAI Mission received 120 applications in its second round, doubling the first round's 67. With 187 total proposals, approvals are expected soon. Global interest grows as firms plan to incorporate in India for government-backed AI model development. The IndiaAI Mission has received as many as 120 applications for building India's sovereign AI foundation models in the second round which closed on March 15. The number of proposals is double of what was received in the first round, which was 67 proposals. This brings the total number of applications so far received to a whopping 187. The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) aims to provide approvals to at least a few applications by the month end, a senior government official told ET. "We aim to give approval to least a few proposals by end of this financial year," the official said adding that the interest from the government backed initiative has been tremendous. The proposals are not just from firms or individuals from India but several of them are coming from abroad. Firms are planning to incorporate in India for the purpose of building foundation models in India for which they are also getting government funding, the official quoted earlier said. Startups with teams in Singapore, San Francisco and other countries have also applied, the official added. Some applications have also come from students studying at educational institutions like Stanford University. IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had recently told ET "We should have three foundational models by the end of this year." The government's total funding window for the project is ₹1,500 crore. "In the first month, IndiaAI Mission had received a total of 67 proposals till February 15 with contributions from both established startups and new teams of researchers and academia," IT MoS Jatin Prasada had said recently in the Lok Sabha in a written response.

IndiaAI Mission Receives Another 120 Bids To Build AI Foundational Models

In late January, the IndiaAI Mission invited applications from Indian startups, researchers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate on building foundational AI models The IndiaAI Mission has reportedly received around 120 applications to build AI foundation models in the second round of bidding, which closed on March 15. The electronics and IT ministry (MeitY) is looking to provide approvals to at least a few applications by the end of March, ET reported, citing a senior government official. "We aim to give approval to at least a few proposals by the end of this financial year," the official said. The IndiaAI Mission, approved in March 2024 with an allocation of INR 10,372 Cr over the course of next five years, aims to create an AI ecosystem, offering supercomputing capabilities comprising over 10,000 GPUs to various stakeholders. In the first round, the Mission had received 67 proposals to build indigenously developed AI foundational models. With the second round, the total number of applications received stands at 187. The official cited in the report said that the received proposals are not only from individuals and firms in India but also from startups with teams in Singapore, San Francisco and other countries. This comes almost a couple of months after the IndiaAI Mission invited applications from Indian startups, researchers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate on building foundational AI models trained on Indian datasets. 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. Besides, a unified datasets platform AIKosha was also rolled out earlier this month. This comes at a time when GenAI has taken the world by storm and the technology is seeing rapid adoption in India as well. Earlier this week, the IndiaAI Mission signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Lok Sabha Secretariat to create a repository of linguistic datasets to help build AI models for translating parliamentary debates into multiple languages.