Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Emerging Tech is a concept and a strategic policy focus in India, centered on leveraging technologies like AI, Machine Learning, Quantum Computing, and Drones for national development and global leadership. The focus on AI began with the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (NSAI), also known as #AIforAll, released by NITI Aayog in 2018. This strategy was created to guide research and development in new technologies, recognizing AI's potential to transform the economy and address societal challenges. The problem it aimed to solve was how to harness AI for inclusive growth, focusing on sectors like healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities, and smart mobility.
The current mechanism is the IndiaAI Mission, an institution launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) with an outlay of over ₹10,300 crore (or ₹10,372 crore) in March 2024. The mission works through seven pillars, including building indigenous AI compute capacity by deploying over 38,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), creating the AI Kosh datasets platform, and fostering innovation centers and startup financing. Its objective is to position India as a global AI leader by building sovereign indigenous AI capability and ensuring responsible use of AI.
This concept connects directly to the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, which was enacted on August 11, 2023, to safeguard personal data, a critical component for training AI models. The DPDP Act, which replaced the limited data protection provisions under the Information Technology Act, 2000, requires clear, informed consent for processing personal data, including its use in AI-generated content like deepfakes. The Act's Section 6 mandates consent-based data processing, and Section 12 outlines platform responsibilities for user complaints and data removal. While the DPDP Act is a major change, India still lacks a comprehensive, AI-specific law, unlike the European Union's AI Act, meaning the DPDP Act's principles of consent and data minimization are currently applied to AI-driven challenges.