Will Be Able To Catch Up With The Best In The World, Says MeitY Addl Secy On India’s AI Mission

At the BT India@100 summit, Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary at MeitY and CEO of the India AI Mission, outlines India’s roadmap to strengthen its position in the global AI landscape and build robust domestic capabilities. He expresses confidence that with strong government policy support and active private sector participation, India can catch up with the best in the world. The India AI Mission was launched to bridge key gaps—namely, limited compute infrastructure, lack of quality datasets, and inadequate funding for startups. As part of this effort, the government has made 34,000 GPUs available at affordable rates (under $1 per GPU/hour) and is developing the AI Coach platform to provide ready-to-use datasets from both public and private sectors. The platform will also include tools for data anonymization and privacy preservation. Singh emphasizes AI’s transformative value across sectors—from helping farmers with timely insights, to aiding small businesses in inventory and pricing, to enhancing manufacturing through quality control and modeling—making it a vital force for efficiency and innovation across the economy.