The Centre has approved 58 AI Centres of Excellence (COEs) and 543 data and AI labs across India and IndiaAI Mission has identified 762 AI use cases across 62 ministries, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada told Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Building the AI Application Pipeline

The Minister said in a written reply that under the IndiaAI Application Development Initiative (IADI), a workshop on AI in public service delivery was held in April which helped ministries and departments assess their data capabilities, identify potential AI use cases and develop AI roadmaps for governance and public service delivery through a collaborative and consultative approach. "IADI has built a pipeline of AI solutions across priority sectors including healthcare, agriculture, governance, climate, cybersecurity and financial regulation, with pathways from ideation to pilot deployment and scale," he said.

Nationwide AI Infrastructure and Skills Development

The government has approved a scheme to establish 58 artificial intelligence centres of excellence (AI-CoEs) across states and union territories, in collaboration with the respective state/UT governments and industry partners. Under the approved framework, two AI-CoEs have been allocated for establishment in Tamil Nadu.

Apart from this, under the IndiaAI FutureSkills pillar, 543 Data & AI Labs have been approved for establishment across ITIs and polytechnics in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities to provide training in AI, data annotation, data curation and applied data science. Of these, 18 Data & AI Labs have been allocated for establishment in Tamil Nadu.

Under the IndiaAI FutureSkills pillar, fellowships are offered to undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students to support education and research in artificial intelligence. "A total of 686 fellowships have been awarded nationally across 178 institutions. Of these, 162 fellowships have been awarded to students from Tamil Nadu, comprising 96 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate and 32 PhD fellowships," the Minister said.

Strengthening AI Governance and Safety

Additionally, an IndiaAI Safety Institute is being established as a hub for indigenous research and development in AI safety, aimed at strengthening India's technical and institutional capabilities for AI governance. (ANI)