Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union Minister, Ministry of Electronics & IT, Railways, Information & Broadcasting

Photo — Ministry of Electronics & IT, Railways, Information & Broadcasting

As the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw has been a key driving force behind India's AI ambitions. He personally championed the Cabinet approval of the IndiaAI Mission, with a total financial outlay of ₹10,371.92 crore. A major highlight of the initiative is subsidised AI compute access, reducing costs by up to 40% for eligible users, alongside the creation of a state-of-the-art compute infrastructure with over 18,000 GPUs through public-private partnerships.

Vaishnaw also oversaw the launch of a suite of key initiatives, including unified dataset platform AIKosha, the IndiaAI Compute Portal, an AI Competency Framework for Public Sector Officials, the iGOT Karmayogi, the IndiaAI Startups Global Acceleration Programme, the IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, and the IndiaAI FutureSkills Fellowship. He also established an IndiaAI Safety Institute to ensure the ethical and safe application of AI models.

As Chair of India's Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence presidency in 2024, Vaishnaw represented the country at global AI governance forums and has set a goal of positioning India among the top five AI-driven nations.