Latest news with #Vaishnaw
Time of India
16 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
India AI: 3 more startups to build indigenous foundation model; common compute capacity expanded
New Delhi: After Sarvam AI , India on Friday selected three more startups -- Soket AI , Gan AI, Gnani AI -- for building indigenous artificial intelligence foundation models. In line with its global AI ambitions backed by a comprehensive plan that entails enhanced AI infrastructure and local language model development, India has also announced availability of 16,000 more GPUs that would take the compute facility available to startups and researchers here to 34,000, with the support of industry partners. The expanded compute capacity on cloud will provide a common computational AI platform for training and inference, crucial to develop indigenous foundational models and AI solutions tailored to the Indian context. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said significant progress has been made on India AI Mission, with focus on democratisation of technology. The compute facility supercharged with 34,000 GPUs will enable India to develop AI ecosystem in a big way, he said. Seven bidders have offered their commercials for various categories of AI compute units (GPUs). These include Cyfuture India, Ishan Infotech, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, Netmagic IT Services, Sify Digital Services, Vensysco Technologies, and Yotta Data Services. At the same time, three more teams -- Soket AI, Gan AI, Gnani AI -- have been selected for building indigenous artificial intelligence foundation models. "Like Sarvam, these three teams also have a very big target ahead of them. Whichever sector they focus on, they must be among the top five in the world," Vaishnaw said. Put simply, foundation models in generative AI are large, pre-trained models that form the base for a variety of AI applications. The Minister further said that 367 datasets have already been uploaded to AI Kosh. He also highlighted IndiaAI Mission's role in driving reverse brain drain, and creating a comprehensive ecosystem entailing foundational models, compute capacity, safety standards, and talent development initiatives. Vaishnaw emphasised that these efforts are aimed at building a complete and inclusive AI ecosystem in India. In April this year, Sarvam AI was selected to build India's first indigenous AI foundational model, marking a key milestone in the country's AI innovation ecosystem. Soket AI will develop open source 120 billion parametres foundation model optimised for the country's linguistic diversity targeting sectors such as defence, healthcare, and education. Gan AI will create 70 billion parameters of multilingual foundation model targeting capabilities to surpass the current global leader. Gnani AI will build a 14 billion parameter Voice AI foundation model delivering multilingal real-time speech processing with advances reasoning capabilities. Ganesh Gopalan, Co-Founder and CEO of said in a statement, "We are honoured to be selected under the IndiaAI Mission to develop large language models that truly represent India's linguistic diversity. At our mission has always been to make technology more inclusive and accessible". Gopalan further said is keen to "lead the way in developing voice-to-voice large language models for India and the world, because we believe transformative AI must speak the language of the people it serves". Meanwhile, under the IndiaAI Applications Development Initiative, Vaishnaw also announced the winners of the IndiaAI I4C CyberGuard AI Hackathon, jointly organised with Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs. "The Hackathon resulted in the development of AI-based solutions to enhance the classification of cybercrime complaints and support the identification of emerging crime patterns, trends, and modus operandi on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP). These models can interpret complex inputs such as handwritten FIRs, screenshots, and audio calls with improved speed and accuracy," an official release said. PTI
Time of India
20 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Government selects 3 more teams for foundation models of AI
Representative image NEW DELHI: India is broadening its efforts to develop AI foundation models. After Sarvam AI, the government on Friday selected three more teams - Soket AI, Gan AI, and Gnani AI - for building indigenous AI models. IT and electronics minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the country has 367 data sets loaded on AI Kosh. "So the app ecosystem is also now developing. In a sense, the entire ecosystem is now getting built." Govt has also announced the availability of 16,000 more GPUs, which would take the compute facility available to startups and researchers to 34,000. Vaishnaw said significant progress was made on the India AI Mission, with a focus on the "democratisation of technology". The compute facility, supercharged with 34,000 GPUs, will enable India to develop the AI ecosystem in a big way. "I would like to make some mention about the three teams that were selected today. Like Sarvam, these three teams also have a very big target ahead of them. Whichever sector they focus on, they must be among the top five in the world," Vaishnaw said. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Hindustan Times
21 hours 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.
The Hindu
a day ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Three more start-ups selected to get GPU access for Indian AI models
Three firms — Gurugram-based Soket AI, Delhi-based and Bengaluru-based — have been selected in the IndiaAI Mission's ongoing drive to facilitate the development of an indigenous foundational AI large language model (LLM). 'Like Sarvam AI, which was selected earlier this year as the first such firm, these three teams also have a very big target in front of them,' Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said. By being selected, these firms will get access to the Common Compute facility, giving them access to thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) on which AI models are trained and deployed. With the government's facility, operated by a clutch of large tech firms like Sify, set to have a total of 34,000 GPUs soon, Mr. Vaishnaw said that the 'worry' of whether 'India will be able to get that kind of compute' is 'practically over'. co-founder Ganesh Gopalan said that the company had been 'developing voice-to-voice large language models for India and the world, because we believe transformative AI must speak the language of the people it serves.' The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's Additional Secretary Abhishek Singh said that the IndiaAI Mission has also been working on hackathons with 'allied Ministries' like the Ministry of Home Affairs — for classifying cyber crimes — and with the Geological Survey of India for mineral discovery. 'Very soon we will be working with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other ministries for launching more problem statements to give opportunities to our startups and researchers to contribute to solutions,' he said.
India Gazette
a day ago
- Business
- India Gazette
Ministry working on PhD programme for fundamental research on AI: Ashwini Vaishnaw
New Delhi [India], May 30 (ANI): Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday that the government is working on a PhD programme so that the Artificial Intelligence mission could fund the basic fundamental research in AI. 'It will really bring new opportunities for us and for the IT industry, which will go through a major transition period,' the minister told an AI-focused event. 'We should be able to capture this transition as an opportunity rather than getting disrupted by it, because whenever such a large technological change happens, it's very important that the industry and the government and the talent development ecosystem, they should all work together to make sure that we get prepared for the changing times,' he supplemented. Speaking about the potential of AI, he said AI in itself may not mean much, but when it is applied to various sectors, it can really make a big difference in solving problems at the population level and on a large scale. The focus of his government is very clear - a vision of democratising technology, he said. 'It's very important that technology should not be left in the hands of a few,' he supplemented. 'It's very important that a larger section of the society should have access to technology, should be able to develop new solutions, have better opportunities.' Supplementing the democratisation of technology, he said about 19,000 GPUs have already been deployed. The second round of empanelment may create another 16,000 GPUs, taking the total to 34,000 GPUs. 'It's a very big, large, significantly large number of compute. And this is a continuous process,' Minister Vaishnaw said. 'The 3rd round will also be completed very soon. That will bring another round of GPUs. In a sense, what we were some time back worried about whether India will be able to get that kind of compute facility or not. It was a big worry in the minds of many now practically those worries are over, with 34,000 GPUs, the compute facility is very significant,' the minister said. On the AI front, India will soon have its first foundational Artificial Intelligence model, the minister has indicated on several occasions recently. The government is going to host an open-source model on Indian servers. This comes as Chinese startup DeepSeek has challenged the AI world. India is rapidly building a strong AI computing and semiconductor infrastructure to support its growing digital economy. With the approval of the IndiaAI Mission in 2024, the government allocated Rs 10,300 crore over five years to strengthen AI capabilities. A key focus of this mission is the development of a high-end common computing facility AI as a technology has just begun, and the number of innovations that one can see going forward is going to be phenomenal. (ANI)
