India's AI Datasets, Compute Platforms Go Live; Domestic GPUs In 3-5 Years' Time

India's sovereign datasets platform AIKosha and compute access portal went live on Thursday, along with a three- to five-year target on developing GPUs domestically, marking progress in the government's Rs 10,000-crore IndiaAI Mission.

Part of the IndiaAI Mission, AIKosha is India's sovereign datasets platform meant to train AI models, while the AI Compute Portal is the platform through which companies can access subsidised GPUs for research and testing. About 14,000 GPUs have gone live today, with another 4,000 in the pipeline. Previously, MeitY had already announced that it had procured 18,693 GPUs from empaneled vendors.

The core datasets for AIKosha will be provided by government ministries, while private entities are also being consulted for contributing non-personal datasets, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. So far, datasets from ministries related to agriculture, weather forecasting and Bhashini have been added to AIKosha.

The minister added more AI compute capacity will be added every quarter.

"India's own AI foundational model is progressing well; we have 67 applications, of which 22 are for developing LLMs. A significant part of our compute capacity will be used for developing sovereign AI models...they will be developed at a fraction of the cost of the same in advanced economies," Vaishnaw added.

Further, AI courses for civil services have been launched as part of the Capacity Building Mission.

"India is to be among the top 5 AI nations during PM Modi's third term. We will have its own chipsets in the next 3-4 years," Vaishnaw said.