India could be next super power in AI, says IBM India MD:

India could be next super power in AI, says IBM India MD:

In 2023, emerging technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G/6G, augmented/virtual reality and robotics will be a game changer and many enterprises are now focusing on these technologies. 

India can become a considerable force in AI, said experts. Sandip Patel, managing director, IBM India and South Asia, said, “If you look at patents, 5,000 patents have been filed in AI from India in the last decade, according to industry reports. India is at a point where it can become a considerable force in the area of AI innovation.”

Speaking at the AI Day event, organized by IBM on Thursday, Patel said IT buyers are expecting the share of emerging tech to grow by three times from the present 10% to 30% in the next four to six years, driven by higher efficiency that they are looking for from these technologies.

He backed up his views by quoting a few data points including a Brookings Institution report which placed India amongst the top-10 countries in terms of technology advancements and funding, specifically in artificial intelligence (AI).

“We are at the cusp of the next digital revolution, as we exit 2022 and enter 2023,” he said.

“Think about the three A’s for the new world – AI, Analytics and Automation. All of them are related in some shape or form. They are all linked by a real conscious use of how you think about data, how you think about the new paradigm of data, and how you use that data to really drive those three A’s. And India is quickly establishing itself as one of the hubs for AI innovation in the world,” Patel added.He also said that India could cater to the AI-demand for 200,000 enterprises globally.

A NASSCOM report suggests that data and AI could add USD 450-500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025.

Businesses will have to draw a significant correlation between AI maturity and its growth trajectory for India to achieve its USD 5 trillion GDP target by FY27, IBM India said in a statement.

India’s Quest to Becoming World’s AI Superpower

India’s recent appointment as the chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence further solidifies our stance as an emerging AI superpower.

India will take over the chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, an international initiative to ensure the responsible use of artificial intelligence. The committee was founded in 2020—with India as one of the founding members—to tackle topics such as use of AI on grounds of human rights, diversity, inclusion, economic growth, and more. One of its aims is also to support cutting-edge research on responsible artificial intelligence use cases. 

Recently, Nasscom and BCG released a report that identified 12 emerging technologies such as AR&VR, Autonomous Driving, Autonomous analytics, Space Tech, Smart Robots and 5G/6G, among others. “India can be a superpower in the domain,” Patel said, stressing on 3As - AI, Analytics and Automation.

“When deployed appropriately, AI and Automation can transform government services, education, healthcare, and business interactions with customers in the upcoming techade,” he said, adding, if data is the oil then AI is the new electricity. Experts also spoke about synthetic data that are computer generated ones that can improve accuracy and mitigate bias and security weaknesses said Viswanath Ramaswamy, VP, technology, IBM India and South Asia.

About 57% of IT professionals in India report that their organization has actively deployed AI in their business, and 27% indicate that their organization is exploring the use of AI, according to IBM’s Global AI Adoption Index 2022.

Skilled AI systems can flag anomalous activity that can indicate new threats, and AI will also improve its knowledge over time to better understand cybersecurity threats and cyber risk by consuming billions of data artifacts, they said.

“According to the UNESCO Science Report from 2021, India now spends more on Research than France, the UK and Italy. While its citizens are well-aware, it must be mentioned that India has the largest amounts of Digital payments globally! India’s IT and BPM industry’s revenue is estimated at US$227b in FY2022, an increase of 15.5% YOY. The IT industry also employed more than 0.5m employees in FY2022. India is an established talent powerhouse for the IT industry globally.

In January 2020, NITI Aayog announced their plan to build out a robust AI infrastructure for enterprise and enthusiast use. In a paper titled, “Establishing an AI Specific Cloud Computing Infrastructure in India”, they described establishing something known as AIRAWAT—an India-first cloud computing infrastructure focused on providing AI-specific services. 

AIRAWAT is aimed at serving the computing requirements of Centres of Research Excellence, Innovation hubs, and International Centres for Transformational AI. Although it is possible for India to become one of the deepest pools for AI talent, many budding developers are crippled by a lack of availability of hardware resources to study algorithms. 

Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and IT announced an innovation challenge titled, Youth for Unnati and Vikas with AI. Building on an older initiative titled, ‘Responsible AI for Youth’, YUVAi targets children in classes 8–12 and aims to equip them with basic AI skills. Moreover, the programme aims to “empower them to become human-centric designers and users of AI”. 

Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI at IIT Madras, Intel AI Research Center at IIT Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur IT Innovation Hub, AI Research Lab At Wipro With IISc, and more. These labs offer an opportunity to budding engineers to work with cutting-edge AI research, upskill and deepen the talent pool for the field. 

The government has also launched the India AI portal. This website was developed by MeiTY and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), and provides an important resource to track and be updated with AI innovations in the country. In addition to this, as a part of the new education policy, the National Council of Educational Research and Training will include a basic course on AI at the intermediate level to expose students to certain basic concepts of machine learning.