India likely to launch its own safe, affordable AI model within 6 months: IT Minister
India is likely to launch its own safe and secure indigenous artificial intelligence (AI) model within six months at an affordable cost, Union Minister for Railways and Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said on Thursday.
The Indian AI model is a timely step as India is a trusted nation and, therefore, it will help the country emerge as a more reliable technological powerhouse of ethical AI solutions in the days to come, the minister told media here.
Backed by a high-end common computing facility, the IndiaAI mission is now closer to customising indigenous AI solutions for the domestic context using Indian languages.
Scientists, researchers, developers and coders are working on multiple foundational models in this regard and with the given pace, the Union Minister expressed hope that the Indian AI model is likely to be ready within six months.
The AI model is beginning with the computation facility of roughly 10,000 GPUs. Soon, the remaining 8693 GPUs will be added. It will largely benefit researchers, students and developers in the beginning.
Government has decided to give it to the users for less than Rs 100 per GPU after subsidising the 40 per cent of the cost.
Compared to global models costing $2.5 to $3 per hour usage, India’s AI Model will cost less than less than Rs 100 rupees per hour after 40 per cent government subsidy.
The attractive half yearly and annual plans will further make it more affordable, it was informed.
It is about nine times of what open-source model China’s DeepSeek has and about two third of what ChatGPT has.
Safety and ethical deployment of AI Model remains top priority for the government. Expressing this commitment, the Union Minister announced that India is establishing an AI Safety Institute, adopting a techno-legal approach.
The Indian AI model will help promote innovation and develop citizen centric better governance tools including many industrial uses having humongous potential to harness technological benefits for the people at large.
Over the past one and a half year, India has been developing a robust AI ecosystem framework to support its own foundational AI model.
