Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met with executives today to discuss the future of chip development and collaboration opportunities under the IndiaAI Mission.
The minister, in a post on X, shared that the discussion centered on leveraging AI to address India-specific challenges, along with exploring the potential of developing “Bharat’s own AI chip.”
Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director for Asia South at NVIDIA India; Nitiraj Singh, Head of Strategic Business at NVIDIA; and Ganesh Mahbala, Director of Strategic Business at NVIDIA, were the key officials present.
“NVIDIA promised support for AI mission. We discussed ways to leverage AI for solving India-specific problems. Also discussed potential development of Bharat’s own AI chip,” the minister stated on X.
In March 2024, the Union Cabinet approved the IndiaAI Mission, earmarking Rs 10,372 crore for the next five years. This initiative includes government funding to assist private companies in establishing AI computing infrastructure within the country, among other key initiatives.
The government recently invited bids to enlist entities providing cloud-based artificial intelligence services under the IndiaAI mission.
The empaneled agencies, such as data centres and cloud service providers, will be required to offer access to high-speed AI computing infrastructure—including graphics processing units (GPUs), accelerators, Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), and storage—to academia, startups, researchers, and government bodies, among others, at the lowest rates determined through the bidding process.
The mission will be executed by the Independent Business Division (IBD) ‘IndiaAI’ within the Digital India Corporation (DIC). AI supercomputing infrastructure established through the IndiaAI Mission will be made accessible to startups, academia, researchers, and industry professionals.
Earlier in March, S Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) told YourStory that the central government has plans to procure 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) over the next 18-24 months to fuel India’s computing capabilities.
Speaking at the sidelines of TiEcon Delhi 2024, Krishnan elaborated that the acquisition will be executed through a public-private partnership, ensuring that startups gain access to the required computing resources.
“India is in plans to acquire 10,000 GPUs in the next 18-24 months. This initiative will be carried out through a public-private partnership with the goal of providing startups with the computational resources they need to thrive,” said S Krishnan.
