AI-Based Initiatives Led By MeitY In 2021

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) received the go-ahead at the beginning of 2021 to roll out the ambitious National Artificial Intelligence Mission, a five-year programme announced in the union budget two years ago. The mission will be led by MeitY, and the ministry will be working closely with NITI Aayog. 

In May 2021, the 'National AI Portal', a joint initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and NASSCOM, celebrated its first anniversary. The portal serves as a hub for AI-related news, learning, articles, events and activities, etc., in India and beyond. In addition, the ministry is launching multiple initiatives like 'INDIAai' to make India a dominant player in the global AI domain. This article presents the top AI initiatives undertaken by MeitY in 2021. 

India's AI Journey: 75@75

MeitY launched its AI compendium' 75@75 India's AI journey" on the first day of its 'Azadi Ka Digital Mahotsav' event. This was done in collaboration with NeGD and NASSCOM.

The compendium highlights the 75 use cases of AI in India that have successfully impacted the people and the governance of the nation. The use cases have been categorised under government, startups, academia and enterprises. 

MeitY and AWS Collaboration to Launch Quantum Computing Applications Lab in India

MeitY and Amazon Web Services announced their collaboration in January 2021 to provide quantum computing as a service to government ministries and departments, researchers, scientists, academia, and developers. This would enable advances in manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, and aerospace engineering. Quantum computing leverages the laws of quantum mechanisms to build powerful tools for processing information. This will lead to breakthroughs in ML and AI. 

'AI Pe Charcha' 

MeitY and NeGD have conducted an insightful series of sessions, AI Pe Charcha, since 4 March 2021. The topic "Open Source AI to Solve Billion Scale Problems" was the first session's theme. The sessions are a continuation of RAISE 202 and involve discussions around UI and Aadhar identification, ethical AI, open-sourced AI, etc. AI per Charcha has emphasised the importance of proper identification, identity creation, validation, speech recognition, fraud detection, and Indic language translation. 

Since then, the ministry has conducted multiple sessions on numerous topics. The latest was held in November to discuss the importance of data-driven and AI-enabled governance and global best practices. The sessions are well attended by AI enthusiasts, AI practitioners, academicians, etc. 

MeitY, NASSCOM, Government of Andhra Pradesh Launch' CoE of IoT & AI' in Vizag

NASSCOM and MeitY have launched a 'Centre of Excellence on IoT and AI' at Andhra University Campus in Visakhapatnam on 30 November. The centre manifests the Union Government's digital vision and comprises open labs, incubation facilities, etc., to promote innovation in the AI sector. Moreover, the centre will bring about new opportunities for development, funding, mentorship for startups and the IT sector in Vishakhapatnam. 

Over the years, MeitY has been increasingly pushing for AI-based initiatives that would make India a key player in the AI industry. The mission that MeitY has launched has helped India make leaps and bounds of success in AI in a short span of time.