“India’s vision is crystal clear: AI for all,” said the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj at an event based on ‘Artificial Intelligence for accelerating progress on sustainable development goals: Addressing society’s greatest challenge’, on September 18.
The Ambassador further highlighted India’s digital transformation journey, human-centric AI governance, and progress towards the SDGs. “AI is scarily powerful! And India, as the world’s fastest-growing economy, acknowledges its pivotal role in this revolution. With the world’s largest pool of skilled AI professionals, we are poised to lead the way,” said the Ambassador.
India is witnessing an unprecedented digital revolution, underpinned by the rapid adaptability of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This transformation is credited to several government initiatives, private sector innovation, and a burgeoning tech-savvy population, among others.
“With the world’s largest pool of skilled AI professionals, India is poised to lead the way. By 2035, AI has the potential to contribute an astounding one trillion dollars to India’s economy,” said the Ambassador.
Initiatives like the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, the National Artificial Intelligence Portal, ‘INDIAai,’ and Digital India, among others, are playing an instrumental role in this technological transformation. Further, India is also crafting a National Data Governance Policy to strike a balance between data accessibility for innovation and safeguarding user privacy and security.
A few prominent examples are Digital India BHASHINI, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-led language translation platform that seeks to enable easy access to the internet and digital services in Indian languages. Further, an Indian company unveiled the world’s first wide-area AI-powered anti-drone system, INDRAJAAL, highlighting India’s continuous innovation and utilisation of AI technology in addressing real-world challenges.
During the recent successful G20 Summit, India proposed a “Framework for Responsible Human-Centric AI governance” which aims to ensure that AI serves the global community while safeguarding against misuse.
AI is making significant inroads into various sectors of the Indian economy, ranging from defence, health, education, and others. As the Chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), India is continuously striving for AI in governance. Ambassador Kamboj also mentioned that India will be hosting the GPAI Summit in New Delhi in December 2023.