Government on Monday said that India is poised for an artificial intelligence (AI) revolution with a vision to develop “in India, for India” to become a global leader.

“Our vision is to make AI in India and make AI work for India as well as AI for all,” Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Minister Jitin Prasada, said, adding that the ₹10,000 crore allocation for the India AI Mission will focus on democratising AI benefits, fostering innovation, and ensuring technological self-reliance. With the world’s largest youth population and a thriving start-up ecosystem, India is poised for an AI revolution, he said.

Speaking at the fourth edition of the India Internet Governance Forum (IIGF), Prasada also said that India’s transformative journey over the last decade, marked by successes like UPI, Aadhaar, and the BharatNet project, serves as a model for other nations.

With over 1.4 billion citizens and nearly one-billion Internet users, India has emerged as a vibrant digital economy, setting global benchmarks in innovation and inclusivity…Today, 95 per cent of our villages are linked to 3G-4G connectivity, and our startup ecosystem has reached over 600 districts, with more than half led by women,” he added.

Multi stakeholder collaboration

The Minister also stressed upon the importance of multi stakeholder collaboration in global Internet governance, citing India’s active role in forums like the UN’s Global Digital Compact and GPAI and urged all stakeholders to shape a sustainable, inclusive, and secure digital future.

Meanwhile, S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), highlighted the transformative power of digitalisation over the past two decades, emphasising how it has revolutionised the way we access and interact with information, now all at our fingertips.

He reflected on the significant discussions from the previous edition of the India Internet Governance Forum (IIGF) and the actions taken since. He stressed the importance of ensuring the continued resilience of the Internet, underscoring the critical steps needed to maintain its stability.

“Are we stable enough in the country to ensure all the services which are offered to citizens of this country can be offered even in the time of disruption? That is what Internet resilience is all about,” he said adding that all those data also needs to be stored in this country to offer those services.

“I don’t mean the whole bunch of Instagram pictures. I don’t really mind where are they stored. But, all the financial data, all the data which relates to power utility, all the data which relates to telecom communication utility, host of other data which are required for people to actually live their daily life on a digitised basis today,” he said.

He also mentioned that the country should be prepared for hosting that much capacity of data at the data centres, for which there raises a question of availability of power too.

“Today the biggest question is availability of power…globally all the big major technology companies are trying to figure out ways in which they can secure adequate power for AI applications. And, related to that is the data centres…as we adopt AI more and more, do you have enough power supply to power them, otherwise where do you make sure that this power supply comes up in a way that we are able to address this issue. This is again that MeitY is working along with Ministry of Power, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy and all other related agencies…to make sure that we have enough power for the data centres,” Krishnan added.