By Abhishek Singh & Satwik Mishra

In 2023, the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) reached a zenith in its global recognition and anticipation, capturing the world’s collective imagination. This burgeoning interest will progressively transform into a deeper exploration of AI’s concrete benefits, particularly for communities traditionally overlooked in technological advancements. India, with its strategic foresight, is leading this shift towards leveraging AI for inclusive development.

India stands at an exciting juncture with a flourishing AI landscape. A recent industry report highlights that generative AI could potentially add up to $1.5 trillion to its GDP by 2030. In the short-term, AI is poised to inject approximately $450-500 billion into the nation’s GDP by 2025, representing a significant 10% of India’s goal of achieving a $5 trillion GDP. The Stanford AI Index 2023 ranks India as the global leader in AI skill penetration, emphasising its pivotal role in driving AI ecosystem. India’s dynamic startup ecosystem consists of 31,000 tech startups and many of these startups are from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, that shows the depth of India’s inclusive innovation ecosystem. Around 70% of these startups have embraced AI to foster their own growth and augment their value proposition.

This landscape has been proactively supported by the government of India to enable value creation. The National Program on Artificial Intelligence (NPAI) has been strategically curated to support this ecosystem. Central to this effort will be the National Data Management Office, focused upon improving data quality to fuel AI innovation. The National Centre on AI will complement this intervention by identifying and deploying AI solutions aimed at socio-economic development. Additionally, the program prioritises AI skill development to enable the workforce to effectively utilise its potential. Finally, and most importantly the program has an overarching emphasis on ensuring ethical and responsible AI adoption. While the international AI race intensifies among nations and corporations to develop the largest AI models, India is taking a distinct approach. The emphasis is beyond just augmenting the technical competence of AI. It involves a deliberate and meticulous approach in the development and deployment of AI solutions, carefully crafted to meet the distinct challenges faced by citizens.

Inclusive interactions with AI

The Digital India Bhashini initiative is developing speech-to-speech machine translation for various Indian languages and dialects. According to the census, India exhibits a remarkable linguistic diversity, with 121 languages spoken by at least 10,000 people. Additionally, the country is home to over 19,500 dialects, highlighting its rich and varied cultural heritage. Bhashini is directed towards revolutionizing interactions with government apps and websites making digital services more accessible in native languages, augmenting accessibility and inclusivity of the social welfare net. For instance, the AI chatbot integrated with PM-Kisan, the direct benefit transfer program, which has successfully reached 110 million farmers, empowers farmers to inquire about their eligibility, application status, and payment updates using voice commands in their native language ensuring seamless interaction with the program.

AI in the fields

An AI-driven early warning system known as CottonAce, developed by Wadhwani AI, is providing farmers with timely and localised guidance on precise pesticide application. After a successful pilot in partnership with the Maharashtra Government, CottonAce is currently operational in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Telangana, benefitting more than 18,000 farmers. Its utilisation has led to a 25% rise in cotton crop yields demonstrating its profound impact in agricultural productivity. In a similar vein, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is implementing a pilot project in Andhra Pradesh, utilising an AI-driven sowing application designed to assist farmers in maximising their harvests. This application integrates an extensive array of data, encompassing 45 years of rainfall patterns, a decade’s worth of sowing progression data, and real-time analyses of current weather conditions and soil quality to enhance predictability and provide farmers with informed guidance on selecting the most opportune week for sowing.

AI in the metropolis

By 2030, it is projected that Indian cities will be home to 40% of the population and will be responsible for over 70% of the nation’s GDP. Cities sit on vast and rich data through an extensive network of video cameras, sensors, traffic management systems, and smart meters. Multiple municipal corporations are now utilising AI and image recognition technologies for near-real-time monitoring of traffic and city infrastructure. Solutions have been effective in detecting over 1,000 traffic violations per hour and in the reporting of over 50,000 catastrophic issues. The ongoing iRaste project interfaces AI with road safety engineering, aiming to make our roads safer. In its pilot phase, 340 buses in Nagpur and 200 inter-city buses in Telangana have been integrated with cutting-edge collision warning sensors. These sensors are capturing data on near-misses and actual collisions. The gathered information undergoes in-depth analysis to pinpoint and categorize locations prone to frequent accidents, marking a significant stride towards enhancing road safety and preventing future incidents.

Healing with AI

DRDO’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics has developed ATMAN AI, an AI-based software for Covid detection using chest X-rays. This software classifies X-rays into normal, Covid-19, and pneumonia categories. ATMAN AI is powered by a deep convolutional neural network, adept at accurately identifying Covid-19, a significant achievement given the limited dataset of Covid X-ray images available. Another notable illustration in this domain comes from Dozee, a startup funded by the Department of Biotechnology. It has introduced an AI-powered Early Warning System for the contact-free monitoring of vital patient parameters. It has already led to the enhancement of more than 4,000 hospital beds across 35 districts, serving over 30,000 patients and saving over 65,000 nursing hours.

By actively fostering an AI ecosystem centered on uplifting its citizens and communities, India is exemplifying the true essence of technological progress. Moving beyond the hype and into tangible, impactful action, India’s approach to AI transcends the conventional current narrative of technological prowess, embodying a vision where technology serves as a bridge to social and economic inclusivity.

Abhishek Singh & Satwik Mishra, Respectively, additional secretary, ministry of electronics & IT, Government of India, and acting executive director, Centre For Trustworthy Technology, a WEF C4IR Centre. Views are personal