On the 1st of February 2024, the Hon’ble Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, introduced the Interim Budget 2024-25. The budget’s focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), a sunrise industry, will have the government boost investments and innovations in AI. The G20 Leaders’ Summit held in September 2023 observed the leaders’ emphasis on AI, generative AI in particular, and its economic impact. India has shown a clear indication of where its growing interests lie. The world is focused on artificial intelligence as possibilities turn into reality. With the target of being the third-largest economy, India needs to push for further development in industries that would shape the global landscape.
The rapid development of artificial intelligence in the past few years has allowed machine learning to enhance human capabilities and understanding in many diverse fields. For the most part, it does so by processing large data sets and finding patterns to model decision-making on. From agriculture to healthcare, transportation to finance, different facets of our lives are being pierced by AI, reimagining the way we work, live, or interact and revolutionising industries all around. The burgeoning of AI brings with it opportunities for India to surpass traditional development models and emerge once again as a global leader in innovation, with many terming it the 4th Industrial Revolution.
We find ourselves on the cusp of global growth and increased pivotal development with the advent of AI. Every day we hear about new possibilities brought to life with the growing innovations in AI, especially generative AI. Slowly but surely, AI is permeating different aspects of our lives. If one were to look at the current positioning of India in the global digital landscape, India has experienced multiple peaks in the past few years. A multitude of constructive measures have been taken that have successfully primed us for the advancement that awaits, primarily in terms of infrastructural readiness.
Due to the smooth deployment of 5G in the country, India currently ranks 47th in the Speedtest Global Index for mobile internet speed. As of January 2023, India has a high internet user base and has the second-largest digital population, standing at 692 million. India currently exhibits the highest AI skill penetration (AI Index Report by Stanford). In addition, India contributes approximately 16 percent of the global AI talent pool. To build resilience and scalability in the AI industry in the country, gaps such as large-scale digital disparity need to be addressed at the crux itself.
Even though we exhibit a high talent pool, these numbers can be reinforced. Especially with a rising youth, with 66 percent of India’s population below the age of 35, India has much to gain. At present, India lacks in terms of both human capital trained in AI—which can create cutting-edge models—and computing infrastructure that can run such models. India will need to build its software libraries and collate data to spur AI adoption. India will also need to increase its accessibility to its larger population.
AI can be integrated into various industries by breaking down tasks and devising where it could fit in. Existing jobs should be augmented by AI, as that would threaten fewer jobs while ensuring growth in overall productivity and creating easier working conditions. AI assistance can be used to overcome repetitive administrative tasks, reallocating efforts more efficiently. As India has just recently expanded into the AI market, India needs to acknowledge the ground reality to hone its strengths and mitigate its threats. With its demographic dividend and a highly skilled IT workforce, it can focus on upskilling workers by incorporating AI-related courses in its educational curricula and expanding access to necessary infrastructure such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). This would surely lead to increased productivity and efficiency across industries, which would contribute to economic growth. By harnessing AI, India can also improve access to quality healthcare and education in remote areas, optimise agricultural practices, and expand financial services to underserved populations. With sufficient investment, emerging markets and developing economies may leapfrog in certain sectors, facilitating the offshoring of tasks and reducing cross-country inequality. AI can be integrated into various industries by breaking down tasks and devising where it could fit in.
While we welcome AI, we need to be mindful of the several issues it reinforces, such as the spread of disinformation, the fear of AI-related job losses, transparency and fairness in predictive modelling, concerns with intellectual property rights, the privacy of personal data, and the threat to human rights and democratic principles. With increasingly sophisticated AI-supported systems, disinformation and deep fakes can be created and distributed with frightening ease. Since it is impractical to outright forbid technology, governance and regulation then become crucial. The government, as well as users, providers, and enablers, should support evidence-based policy. Since AI is heavily reliant on the datasets it processes, it is also imperative that the existing biases are not replicated in the decision-making of AIs.
India’s participation at the WEF Annual Meeting at Davos, held on January 15–19, 2024, shows our commitment to building constructive governance policies and regulations. Using the global discourse to understand challenges (such as cyber security, the increased global threat of data being exported, and related risks) and opportunities (the future of augmentation, governance learnings, and regulations that do not stifle innovation but ensure safety), we can learn from solutions adopted by other countries to build upon our weaknesses while skirting around prevalent issues.
In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “The future depends on what we do in the present.” By leveraging its capabilities, India can successfully transcend into the AI era and ensure benefits larger than what it witnessed during the IT boom of the early 20th century.