With robust and high-tech ‘common computing facility’ in place, India all set to launch its own safe and secure indigenous AI model at affordable cost soon, according to union minister for electronics & IT, railways and information & broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Compared to global models costing 2.5 to 3 US dollars per hour usage, India’s AI Model will cost less than Rs 100 per hour after 40 percent government subsidy.
Moreover, attractive half yearly and annual plans will make it more affordable for users.
Multiple foundational models for Indian context, in Indian languages, likely to be ready later this year will help researchers, students and people owing to its low cost, fast computing and prompt results.
To begin with, 18 citizen centric applications pertaining to agriculture sector, learning disability and climate change are proposed to be part of India’s AI model.
DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup, will also get hosted on Indian servers after security protocol checks so that users, coders and developers can benefit from its Open Source Code.
Interacting with the media at New Delhi recently, Vaishnaw said the Indian AI model is a timely step as India is a trusted nation among the comity of nations.
Therefore, it will help India emerge as a more reliable technological powerhouse of ethical AI solutions in the days to come, he noted.
Backed by a high-end common computing facility, the India AI mission is now closer to customising indigenous AI solutions for the Indian context using Indian languages.
He expressed hope that the Indian AI model is likely to be ready within 6 months.
The proposed AI model is beginning with the computation facility of roughly 10,000 Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). Soon, the remaining 8,693 GPUs will be added.
The Technical partners who are participating in the mission have expressed confidence in the ability of the mission to deliver its objective of democratising access to computing and that too at a competitive rate.
Under the India AI Mission, a huge computing infrastructure has been developed, surpassing global benchmarks.
The facility now houses 18,693 GPUs, including 12,896 H100, 1,480 H200, and 7,200 MI 200 300 units, significantly exceeding the initial target of 10,000 GPUs.
To put this capacity into perspective, DeepSeek was trained on 2,000 GPUs, while ChatGPT required 25,000 GPUs.
This vast computing power will not only accelerate research, model training, help ethical AI algorithm development and foster innovation in India’s AI ecosystem.
A common compute platform has been created, ensuring accessibility to all stakeholders. Approximately 10,000 GPUs are already available, and technical partners have expressed confidence in the mission’s capability to deliver world-class AI solutions.
The Narendra Modi government had approved the IndiaAI Mission with a budgetary outlay of Rs 10372 crore in March 2024.
The objective was to bridge the gaps in the existing AI ecosystem and enable the emergence of India as a hub of development of AI technology and applications.
IndiaAI Mission is being implemented through 7 key pillars and one of the key pillars is enabling the availability of 10,000 GPUs for AI Compute Infrastructure.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), through IndiaAI Independent Business Division (IBD), published a Request for Empanelment (RFE) on August 16, 2024, to empanel AI services on cloud and offer the services to academia, MSMEs, startups, research community, governments, public sector agencies and other entities approved by IndiaAI via the CPP portal.
In total, 19 bidders that included Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), Managed Service Providers (MSPs), and Data Center Service Providers submitted proposals.
After initial scrutiny, 13 bidders were invited to make presentations to the technical evaluation committee.
Per technical evaluation, 10 bidders were found to be eligible for opening of financial bids. The financial bids of the 10 technically qualified bidders were opened on January 22, 2025.
The 10 bidders, who offered their commercials for various categories of AI compute units (GPUs) quoted, comprise CMS Computers India, Ctrls Datacenters, E2E Networks, Jio Platforms, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, NxtGen Datacenter and Cloud Technologies, Orient Technologies, Tata Communications, Vensysco Technologies and Yotta Data Services.
The union minister announced the setting up of IndiaAI Safety Institute under the Safe and Trusted Pillar of the IndiaAI Mission to address AI risks & Safety Challenges.
The IndiaAI Safety Institute will work with all relevant stakeholders, including academia, startups, industry, and government ministries/departments, towards ensuring safety, security and trust in AI.
It will advance indigenous research and development, based on Indian datasets and contextualised to India’s social, economic, cultural, and linguistic diversity.
The Institute, incubated by IndiaAI Mission will be set up on a hub and spoke model with various research and academic institutions, private sector partners joining the hub and taking up projects under the Safe and Trusted Pillar of IndiaAI Mission.
Experts believe that India’s AI model will meet the country’s diverse requirements, bringing forth a high level of innovation tailored for Indian users.
The India AI Mission operates under a four-year sunset clause with long-term sustainability.
As India advances in its semiconductor journey, the government is strategically developing its ecosystem with clarity and systematic planning.
With over $30 billion invested in the semiconductor mission, India’s AI aspirations align with its broader technological vision.