Latest news with #IndiaAI
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
AI mission crosses 34K GPU capacity, 3 new startups to help develop models
India has added 15,916 graphics processing units (GPUs) to its national artificial intelligence infrastructure while selecting three new startups to develop indigenous AI models, the government announced on Friday, accelerating efforts to build sovereign AI capabilities that developers can tap into. According to Union minister for electronics and information technology (Meity) Ashwini Vaishnaw, who made the announcement at an event in Delhi, seven companies will provide the additional GPU capacity — which takes the total in the IndiaAI compute portal to 34,333 units ——at subsidised rates of ₹67 per hour, substantially below the average market rate of ₹115 per GPU hour. 'When we began the India AI mission, we had an initial target of 10,000 GPUs, which we at the time thought would be a lot,' Vaishnaw said. 'But we got a promising response from the industry.' The government has already empanelled 18,417 GPUs in the first tranche, with 14,000 units currently accessible through the IndiaAI compute portal that became operational in March. Vaishnaw announced a third round of GPU empanelment will be completed soon, suggesting continued expansion beyond the original targets. The IndiaAI mission centres on offering AI technology access through government-subsidised infrastructure, including a marketplace of sorts for access to compute (which typically requires expensive hardware) and government databases. Among these efforts is the development of indigenous large language models, the technology that underpins AI chatbots such as ChatGPT. The three startups that were chosen from 506 proposals will develop LLMs optimised for India's 22 major languages and hundreds of dialects. The new startups join Sarvam AI, which was chosen in April to build a 120 billion parameter model, in developing indigenous AI systems trained on Indian datasets. The government has loaded 367 datasets onto AI Kosha, a platform supporting AI research across India. Soket AI will develop a 120-billion parameter open-source model optimised for Indian languages, targeting defence, healthcare and education applications. CEO Abhishek Upperwala set a one-year delivery timeline, saying 'India needs a strong base model that others can build on.' Gnani AI is building a 14-billion parameter voice system for real-time, multilingual speech processing. Gan AI focuses on text-to-speech technology with a 70-billion parameter multilingual model targeting 'superhuman' capabilities. The expansion, coupled with the hardware aspect, represents a dramatic scaling from the programme's original ambitions. 'When we began the India AI mission, we had an initial target of 10,000 GPUs, which we at the time thought would be a lot,' Vaishnaw said. 'But we got a promising response from the industry.' The government has already empanelled 18,417 GPUs in the first tranche, with 14,000 units currently accessible through the IndiaAI compute portal that became operational in March 2025. 'Common compute is a very important part of the principle of democratising technology,' Vaishnaw said. 'Technology should not be left in the hands of a few.' Rather than building government data centres, officials opted to empanel private providers who invest in the infrastructure while receiving 40% subsidies. The strategy yielded bids already more than 40% below prevailing market rates before the additional subsidy was applied. 'The government thought building data centres was going to take longer, so they decided to empanel service providers and private sector players who will invest in the compute infrastructure,' a senior official told HT. The subsidised pricing represents a significant departure from international GPU markets, where Nvidia H100 hourly rates range from $2.99 to $9.98 across major cloud providers in 2025, according to estimates. The seven newly empanelled companies are Cyfuture India, Ishan Infotech, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, Netmagic IT Services, Sify Digital Services, Vensysco Technologies, and Yotta Data Services. Cyfuture emerged as the dominant supplier, offering multiple chip types including Nvidia's H100 and AMD's MI300X processors, while Yotta Data Services provides access to Nvidia's latest B200 chips.
Entrepreneur
26-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Sarvam AI Launches 24B Parameter Open-Source LLM for Indian Languages and Reasoning Tasks
This release follows Sarvam's selection by the Indian government to build a sovereign LLM under the IndiaAI Mission, marking the first step in strengthening the country's domestic AI capabilities You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Bengaluru-based AI startup Sarvam AI has introduced its flagship large language model (LLM), Sarvam-M, a 24-billion-parameter open-weights hybrid model built on Mistral Small. Designed with a focus on Indian languages and advanced reasoning capabilities, Sarvam-M is intended to power applications such as conversational agents, machine translation, and educational tools. According to Sarvam, the model has been fine-tuned through a three-step process involving Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT), Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR), and inference optimisation. The SFT process involved crafting diverse, high-quality prompts to train the model in both general dialogue and complex reasoning. RLVR further improved its instruction-following and mathematical capabilities using custom reward engineering and curated datasets. Inference was optimised using FP8 post-training quantisation and techniques like lookahead decoding. Sarvam-M has demonstrated strong performance in multilingual and reasoning benchmarks. It achieved a significant 86 per cent gain on a romanised Indian language version of the GSM-8K math dataset and showed average performance boosts of 20 per cent on Indian language benchmarks, 21.6 per cent on math, and 17.6 per cent on programming tasks. It outperforms Llama-4 Scout and is on par with models like Llama-3.3 70B and Gemma 3 27B, though it slightly lags in English benchmarks such as MMLU. The model is accessible via Sarvam's API, its own playground, and available for download on Hugging Face. This release follows Sarvam's selection by the Indian government to build a sovereign LLM under the IndiaAI Mission, marking the first step in strengthening the country's domestic AI capabilities.
Coin Geek
21-05-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Intel in pact with India to boost AI education, innovation
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... American chip manufacturer Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) has entered into a strategic partnership with the IndiaAI Mission, an initiative spearheaded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). This collaboration aims to foster artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities across various sectors in India by equipping students, startups, and government officials with essential AI skills. As part of the initiative, Intel will contribute to nurturing talent in both school and college environments while also offering crucial mentorship and technological resources to early-stage AI ventures. A significant component of this partnership includes the introduction of AI-powered personal computers into classrooms, helping expand access to India's multilingual AI platforms, ensuring widespread AI literacy, and supporting the integration of AI technologies within public services. The agreement follows the Indian government's March 2024 announcement of a ₹10,000 crore (approximately $1.24 billion) investment to accelerate the nation's AI infrastructure and entrepreneurial ecosystem development. The IndiaAI Mission will be carried out under a public-private partnership framework, emphasizing the creation of advanced computing facilities and improving access to capital for AI-focused startups. One of the mission's key goals is to strengthen India's position as a global leader in AI while promoting ethical and responsible AI use. A significant step toward this objective involves procuring over 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), which will enhance the country's computational power and support the growth of a robust AI ecosystem. These initiatives are aligned with India's broader digital ambitions. By the fiscal year 2027–2028, the country is projected to achieve a $1 trillion digital economy, with AI expected to play a pivotal role in that transformation. 'India's greatest asset in the AI revolution isn't just our data, or our technology–it's our people. At Intel, we're committed to developing India's human capital and breaking down access barriers,' said Santhosh Viswanathan, Intel's India managing director. 'We look forward to supporting the IndiaAI Mission in nurturing India's AI Innovation ecosystem,' he added. India is proactively forming strategic alliances to build a future-ready workforce in response to the twin forces of rapid technological advancement and ongoing economic transformation. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) launched a significant initiative in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF), unveiling the 'India Skills Accelerator' program. This initiative is designed to upgrade the country's talent base in line with emerging global demands. In a separate effort to promote gender inclusivity in technology, MSDE joined hands with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) to introduce the 'AI Careers for Women' initiative. This program targets female students in higher education, equipping them with the tools and knowledge needed to pursue professional paths in artificial intelligence—a sector poised to shape the future of work. These collaborations are emerging against the backdrop of growing concern about AI-induced disruptions in the labor market. Various studies, including India's own Economic Survey, have highlighted the potential risks associated with AI adoption, particularly regarding job displacement. The report warns that workers in lower- and mid-income segments may face the brunt of automation, with many at risk of being rendered redundant. International voices have echoed these concerns. For instance, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem previously noted that AI's expanding influence could result in more job losses than gains, especially as its transformative effects take deeper root in the economy. Affected individuals may find it increasingly difficult to transition into new roles without significant retraining and upskilling. In light of these challenges, India's focus on skill development and inclusive AI education reflects a broader strategy to mitigate the risks of technological disruption while ensuring that its workforce remains competitive in a fast-changing global landscape. With Intel, India has launched a broad-based AI initiative aimed at building a robust and inclusive AI ecosystem. This national-level partnership is designed to expand access to computing resources, enhance the quality and availability of data, foster homegrown AI innovation, attract world-class talent, and support startups through funding and industry mentorship. The ultimate goal is to ensure that AI-driven growth reaches all segments of Indian society. Under this collaboration, Intel and the IndiaAI Mission will work together on four core programs. These initiatives focus on enhancing employability through AI skill development for both school and university students, providing emerging startups with vital technological and business mentorship, facilitating structured dialogues with public sector leaders to guide effective AI governance, and extending the reach of Bhashini—a government-backed multilingual language technology platform—to remote classrooms via AI-powered personal computers. One key program, YuvaAI, is an extension of Intel's global AI for Youth initiative and is focused on helping school students design AI projects with meaningful social impact. Another, StartupAI, is tailored to support early-stage companies with hands-on access to tools, expert guidance, and go-to-market strategies. Meanwhile, 'IndiaAI Dialogues' aims to empower policymakers and public sector stakeholders with insights and frameworks to guide responsible AI deployment in governance. In addition, the collaboration prioritizes scaling Bhashini's language capabilities to underserved regions, ensuring that students in rural and remote areas can benefit from AI-based learning solutions in their native languages. To further support these efforts, a new AI and data science laboratory will be established to train young individuals in advanced computing and analytical skills—equipping the next generation to thrive in a tech-driven future. Together, these efforts underscore India's commitment to developing an ethical, inclusive, and globally competitive AI environment that serves both social and economic goals. In order for artificial intelligence (AI) to work right within the law and thrive in the face of growing challenges, it needs to integrate an enterprise blockchain system that ensures data input quality and ownership—allowing it to keep data safe while also guaranteeing the immutability of data. Check out CoinGeek's coverage on this emerging tech to learn more why Enterprise blockchain will be the backbone of AI . Watch: Blockchain, IPv6, AI & 5G will pave the way for the new Internet title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
India Gazette
21-05-2025
- Business
- India Gazette
Shanghai Consul General Pratik Mathur addresses technology symposium of Singapore Chamber of Commerce
New Delhi [India], May 21 (ANI): Shanghai Consul General Pratik Mathur addressed the Singapore Chamber of Commerce annual technology symposium, one of the region's most prominent business forums. In a post on X, the Consulate General of India in Shanghai said that Mathur's participation underscored the growing global recognition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for responsible and inclusive artificial intelligence (AI). PM Modi advocated for the responsible use of AI during the Paris Summit. In his remarks, CG Mathur highlighted India's dynamic AI startup ecosystem, which is driving innovation across key sectors including urban development, healthcare, clean energy, and agriculture in the world's fastest-growing major economy. The X post added, 'India's AI vision shines in Shanghai. CG @PratikMathur1 participated in the annual technology symposium of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce, one of the largest and oldest business chambers in the region.' 'The invitation was a reflection of the global recognition of Prime Minister's vision of harnessing AI responsibly, for good, and for all, as articulated in the Paris Summit,' the post added. The post further added, 'In his remarks today, CG highlighted India's vibrant AI startup ecosystem that is driving change in the world's fastest-growing major economy, creating opportunities and revolutionizing diverse sectors such as urban renewal, healthcare, clean energy, and agriculture.' In continuation of the commitment, India and the European Union reiterated their commitment to safe, secure, and sustainable AI in March of this year and to promote this vision globally. As part of this, the European AI Office and India AI Mission have agreed to deepen cooperation, encourage an ecosystem of innovation, and foster information exchange. They have also agreed to enhance cooperation on large language models. In furtherance of the vision of Making AI in India and Making AI Work for India, the Union government last year approved the comprehensive national-level IndiaAI mission with a budget outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore. The IndiaAI mission is to establish a comprehensive ecosystem that catalyses AI innovation through strategic programs and partnerships in the public and private sectors. By democratizing computing access, improving data quality, developing indigenous AI capabilities, attracting top AI talent, enabling industry collaboration, providing startup risk capital, ensuring socially impactful AI projects and bolstering ethical AI, it will drive responsible, inclusive growth of India's AI ecosystem. (ANI)
Time of India
16-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
IndiaAI receives 506 foundation AI model proposals
Live Events The country's push to build artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities is getting an overwhelming response, with IndiaAI Mission on Friday revealing it has received 506 foundation AI proposals across the three the overwhelming response and continued interest, the mission has decided to extend the deadline for submissions under phase 3 of the call for proposals. The earlier deadline was April 30.'Further dates for submission of proposals, the acceptance of new applications post April 30, will be announced subsequently, as per requirements, once the examination of proposals already submitted has been completed," IndiaAI said on its part of the first phase of approvals, was selected to initiate the development of an indigenous foundational selections will be announced shortly, IndiaAI model will have 70 billion multi-modal, multi-scale Indian foundation models will open up a "universe of applications" for citizens and enterprises, Sarvam cofounder Vivek Raghavan had said on April 26. The model will be completed in six months, he had of reasoning, designed for voice, and fluent in Indian languages, Sarvam's model will be ready for secure, population-scale deployment, the startup had said in a to cofounder Pratyush Kumar, Sarvam is developing three model variants. These include Sarvam-Large for advanced reasoning and generation, Sarvam-Small for real-time interactive applications, and Sarvam-Edge for compact on-device will get access to 4,096 Nvidia H100 graphics processing units (GPU) for six months from the IndiaAI Mission's common compute cluster to train its model, people in the know had said.'We are collaborating with AI4Bharat at IIT-Madras, a leader in Indian language AI research, to build these models,' Kumar had said.
