The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has planned to provide a major sum of funds to already established AI startups to keep up with the world's revolution and enhance the abilities of AI in India. This AI Mission of India is funded with a massive budget of ₹10,000 crores, and the Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will soon make the official announcement. The Union Minister stated earlier that “Very soon we will have our own LLM,” pointing at the country's will to compete with global AI leaders.
About the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) is a key stand-alone ministerial agency that formulates policies, strategies, and infrastructure for electronics and information technology. It acts as a driving force to advance innovation and development in these areas. The primary focus areas include developing the Indian IT industry and promoting cybersecurity initiatives.
Startups shortlisted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
These homegrown startups, which include Sarvam AI, Soket AI Labs, Gnani.ai, and Gan.ai, aim to develop the foundational Indian AI models. Each startup excels in providing expertise regarding artificial intelligence development with its dedicated team of tech experts. Here are the planning and operations done by these startups:
Soket AI Labs
Soket AI Labs is a firm that primarily focuses on developing and advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and ethical AGI. They are creating a modular AI Developer platform, concentrating on accelerating deployment, ensuring stability, and enhancing team efficiency.
Among these startups, Soket AI Labs introduced the EKA Project, an open-source Indian LLM with 120 billion parameters developed on 2 trillion tokens. CEO Abhishek Upperwal confirmed the submission to AIM and stated, “Ours is a 12-month proposal, but we are looking to have multiple small models in the next six months.” Nevertheless, the amount of funding remains undisclosed.
Gnani.ai and Gan.ai
Gnani.ai aims to develop voice assistants and speech analytics products for various languages. The AI's speech-to-text engine is currently limited to multiple Indian languages, but it can be tuned to meet other requirements. Gan.ai is a leading tool for developers to transform written texts into expressive speech, improving the overall user experience across various platforms.
Conversely, Gnani.ai and Gan.ai proposed the development of smaller language Models. Ganesh Gopalan, CEO of Gan.ai, previously indicated that their focus is centred around developing speech-to-speech models, particularly for Indic languages. Co-founder Ananth Nagaraj’s role in the Indiaai Mission’s draft policy team underscores the startup’s strategic alignment with the government’s vision.
Sarvam AI
Meanwhile, Sarvam AI previously suggested developing a 70 billion parameter multimodal model that can understand both the Indian and English languages; it has already initiated its work. According to the report, Sarvam AI is expected to get GPU compute credits valued at Rs 200 crore rather than direct monetary grants. This shows the strategic measures the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, or Meity, took to provide all the necessary infrastructure to support these startup projects.
Push for the rapid growth of India's AI ecosystem.
The urgency of rapidly growing India's AI ecosystem started after China's DeepSeek AI model lured global attention at the beginning of this year. Thus, the Indian government accelerated the efforts to grow the foundational AI models which should be made in the country. By February 15, Meity obtained 67 applications, 120 by March, for the ₹1,500 crore scheme for the development of a foundational model. The expectation is that the final selections will soon be announced.
Current focus of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
For now, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is focusing on creating a centralised computing infrastructure. This infrastructure aims to provide GPU access at the rate of $1 per hour, making it one of the most affordable computing platforms. The platform collaborates with companies such as Jio, Yotta, Ctrls, Tata Communications, and NxtGen. Together, these organisations aim to establish this as a global hub for AI compute resources.
A new age for India's upcoming AI capabilities
A new age is arriving, the age of AI, in which India is planning to maintain the pace with global leaders. With these shortlisted companies and startups and the government's support, development has started and is progressing well. Because of this enormous funding of ₹10,000 crores, the required infrastructure, and the dedication of the companies, India surely will be the new global AI leader.