Indian Govt to Set Up National Digital Library, Pushes for AI Localisation

At the Union Budget 2023, Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister announced that the Centre will establish a National Digital Library for children and adolescents to make it easier for them to access high-quality books in a variety of themes, languages, genres, and skill levels to make up for educational losses from the pandemic.

“States will be encouraged to set up physical libraries for them at panchayat and ward levels and provide infrastructure for accessing the National Digital Library resources," said Sitharaman.

National Digital Library Initiatives 

The latest development around setting up a national digital library comes in the wake of making it accessible for students across the country. Last year, IIT-Kharagpur developed a state-of-art National Digital Library (NDLI) for students that cover all courses. It was established by IIT-Kharagpur last year. Students can use the library's precious collection of 1.7 crore items for academic information.

The library serves as a virtual repository of educational resources. The majority of the NDLI's materials are varied and include books, audiobooks, as well as significant video lectures and presentations. The relevant test papers and solutions, as well as lecture notes, will be available to students. The teaching materials include all grade levels from elementary to graduate.

Read: Union Budget 2023 Highlights: From ‘Make in India’ to ‘Make AI in India,’ ‘Make AI Work for India’ and More

Educational Institutions Get AI Push 

The Centre would also establish three centres of excellence in premier institutions to advance artificial intelligence  in India with the motto of "Make AI in India" and "Make AI work for India."

Industry leaders will collaborate to perform interdisciplinary research, create cutting-edge apps, and find scalable solutions to issues in the fields of sustainable cities, health, and agriculture. As a result, an efficient AI ecosystem will be created, and human resources will be developed.

Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR) Hyderabad will be one of Centres of Excellence with the aim to make it the global leader in millets.

The Indian government has been promoting AI and digitalization since the launch of the Digital India initiative in 2015. It has actively integrated AI and machine learning into government services. In light of AI's rapid advancements and competition from countries like China, India considers AI a crucial aspect of its development.

 “If India does not adopt new technology with changing times, it will remain backward; the country experienced this during the third industrial revolution,” said PM Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar while inaugurating Digital India Week 2022.