Our Aim is to Make India a Global Innovation Powerhouse: President Murmu on IndiaAI Mission

President Droupadi Murmu, addressing the joint session of Parliament ahead of the Union Budget, emphasised the government's commitment to making India a global leader in innovation. “Our aim is to make India a global innovation powerhouse. In the area of artificial intelligence, IndiaAI Mission has been started,” she stated.

She highlighted India’s growing influence in digital technology, saying, “Our country is emerging as a major global player in digital technology.”

‘From Make in India we have moved to Make for the World,’ President Murmi added when talking about the defence sector and innovations.

The IndiaAI Mission, launched to strengthen the nation’s role in artificial intelligence, was also discussed by Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw in a press conference. 

He recently confirmed that India’s LLM would be ready within 10 months. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, through its IndiaAI Mission, has also called for proposals to create AI models that are tailored to Indian needs while meeting global standards.

This proposal comes after Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India is set to develop its own generative AI model, aiming to rival global platforms like ChatGPT and DeepSeek. “Very soon, we will have our own LLMs,” Vaishnaw added.

Comparing India’s AI infrastructure to global benchmarks, Vaishnaw noted, “DeepSeek AI was trained on 2,000 GPUs, ChatGPT was trained on 25,000 GPUs, and we now have 15,000 high-end GPUs available. India now has a robust compute facility that will support our AI ambitions.”

In the Union Budget 2024-25, the Indian government has underscored its commitment to AI by approving the comprehensive IndiaAI Mission. A substantial financial outlay of over ₹10,000 crore was earmarked for the mission over five years, of which ₹551 crore has already been allotted. 

Speculations and discussions are rife about who stands to benefit and what allocations will be made. While finance is obviously the big picture, considering how India’sAI Mission found its place in the previous Budget, AI will possibly take centre stage in the upcoming session tomorrow.