Does India lag behind in AI-related research? Economic Survey 2024 throws some light

India may be amongst the global leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) but the Economic Survey 2024 says that the country has not invested enough in AI research. There is no formal plan in place in this regard either. The Survey states that while China had published over one lakh research papers on AI in 2019, the US had published over 74,000. India, on the other hand, had published just over 23,000.

However, as per the Economic Survey 2024, AI has made a significant growth in some sectors, especially the agri-tech, industry & automotive, healthcare, BFSI and retail sectors in India. The Survey report mentions the case of Praman Exchange, which is the world’s largest horticulture exchange, powered by Intello Labs which uses computer vision to map the quality of horticulture products. Pramaan’s technology is known to be 95 per cent accurate in terms of quality assessment, surpassing the manual assessment rate of 70 per cent. This allows contractors enough time and flexibility to trade from anywhere across the globe.

The Government has launched several initiatives to ensure an AI-enabled ecosystem and also ensure that the youth of India are actively involved. Some of these include ‘Future Skills Prime’; ‘YUVAi:Youth for Unnati and Vikas with AI’ a national programme for school students and ‘Responsible AI for Youth 2022’. The Indian government has also set aside a budget of Rs 10,300 crore in 2024 for the India AI Mission.

India does have immense potential for a revolution in artificial intelligence revolution. After all, it houses the third largest talent pool for AI talent in the world. Investments in India’s AI capabilities are no doubt growing. India’s potential is not going unnoticed by educational Institutes either. For instance, the IISc campus in Bengaluru has tied up with the Karnataka government to launch ARTPARK. This $ 100 Mn venture fund will infuse capital into AI and robotics startups. Researchers at ARTPARK have already collaborated with Analytix Niramai Health, a health tech startup, to develop an AI model called XraySetu. More such collaborations with the government can go a long way in strengthening the AI ecosystem in the country. This collaboration is ready to help develop the overall AI ecosystem in the country and has already highlighted the role that 5G, AI and robotics can play in the Indian economy but a lot more can be done, and should be done.

Maybe India can learn from the US, which has a well laid out plan to strengthen the AI ecosystem. Long-term investments in AI research are amongst the important steps. This helps develop techniques for human-AI collaboration, understand and address implications of AI, ensure the safety and security of AI systems, and also create datasets for AI training and testing. The plans provide for proper measurement and evaluation of AI systems, better understanding of national AI R&D workforce needs, along with expansion of private-public partnerships. All this is aimed at establishing a harmonised approach to international partnerships in the area of AI research.

It is time for India to pay attention to the policy brief by Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), which highlights the need for an Inter-Agency Coordination Authority for AI. Such an agency can serve as a guiding hub for AI-related research, decision-making, policy making and employment generation. According to the RIS brief, AI may seem to have an adverse effect on jobs in the short term, but will eventually give rise to more jobs and employment opportunities in the long run. All that is required is focus on building capacity, training, upskilling and forming policies that will protect workers with low skills from losing their livelihood.