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We are in week six of our new weekly newsletter, crafted to keep you at the forefront of AI advancement. Every week, we'll bring you a round-up of the most impactful AI stories, highlight how they shape our world, and provide insights into what's next in the ever-evolving AI landscape.
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The State of AI
Maharashtra plans to draft an Artificial Intelligence Policy. It's in keeping with the times—AI is the single most important tech trend of our times. In fact, at the state government level, Maharashtra already has an MoU with Google to implement AI in agriculture, healthcare and education. As with other states, centres of excellence are also being set up.
Tamil Nadu has AI plans too, as do Gujarat and Telangana (which has joined forces with Meta). Andhra Pradesh has now announced that Amravati will be developed as an "AI-centred metropolis." AP has partnered with Google too. Then there's Karnataka, which has rolled out Shiksha Co-pilot, a digital assistant powered by GenAI and part of a Microsoft Research platform, to help teachers plan and conduct lessons better.
The question is, even with some pilots and great starts, how many of these projects have scaled or have the investment in place for the big leaps that truly transformative AI adoption needs. The Tamil Nadu Artificial Intelligence Mission (TNAIM) for instance has an initial investment of close to Rs 14 crore. That's not a bad start, but is there a plan to go beyond pilots and scale?
NDTV Profit has already dealt earlier with how AI could be used to tackle Delhi's pollution woes. The Indian capital need not be the global pollution capital and a sustained, adequately funded effort could see AI identify sources, predict trends and more. AI-enabled smart traffic management could help reduce vehicular pollution. Of course, with an issue like pollution in Delhi one needs more than just a great plan and funding; we need co-operation between states, because while pollution sources are identified many will lie in neighbouring states where law enforcement needs to act on the ground. That co-operation is easier said than done.
But that's just Delhi's unique problem. Other states face pollution issues—Mumbai for instance is facing issues and widespread construction is being blamed. Surely, AI can be leveraged to identify construction sites that are not following norms. At the state level, AI could also help transform agriculture through weather simulations for crop testing, yield predictions and more. If you just take analysing data sets as one use-case, governance could be improved by helping governments take data-driven decisions or identifying consensus views. Or analysing data sets for figuring out crime patterns. That can help predict areas for potential problems and ensure greater deployment of law enforcement resources at the right time, which can reduce crime rates. There are similar use cases in transportation, utilities like water and power where states or state-run firms are often providers, healthcare and general administration.
Hopefully, we will see more action on the ground in Indian states in 2025 when it comes to government use of AI so that the promise of AI for all can be delivered.
Maharashtra To Draft Its Artificial Intelligence Policy Soon, Says State IT Minister Ashish Shelar
Another important area to ensure greater use of AI is to ensure the government does all it can help AI start-ups. While the Centre has been proactive on AI as a whole, one concern when it comes to start-ups is that it has been very hard to attract foreign capital for India domiciled startups in the range of $5 to $15 million. There has to be a concerted effort from the government and the ecosystem to attract early stage VC capital into India and this week we have an excellent read on this important issue which has a bearing on the future of AI in our country:
India Needs This To Be 'Atmanirbhar' In Deep Tech — Part 2
And finally, a look into the AI bets the Indian IT sector is taking.
Big AI Bets: Indian IT Sector 'Bytes' Into 2025 With Cautious Optimism
Tech Data, Dell Sign MoU To Drive AI Adoption For Businesses To Unlock New Growth Opportunities
Till next week,
Ivor Soans
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