India has the opportunity to leap ahead of others in AI capabilities

India has an opportunity to create a locally designed Artificial Intelligence plan that would work for its needs and help nurture world-dominating companies specialising in this emerging field, say experts.

So far, the country is seen as lagging behind the US and China in building capabilities in AI due to the lack of large internet companies that harness data of users.

However, growing investments across sectors in building data-based businesses and the recognition by the government to create enabling policies for AI is throwing up an opportunity for entrepreneurs.

“India could have a very large role to play, all the pieces are in place, it has a great opportunity, and is up to India to either succeed or fail,” Andrew Ng, one of the most prominent experts of AI told ET.

Ng, who was the co-founder of Google Brain and is the founder of online learning platform Coursera added that he gets pitch notes from Indian startups. “I have seen some promising ideas from India in the area of healthcare, education, but a lot of hard work has to be done in building the technical capability because AI products for instance speech recognition require high levels of accuracy.”

Read: Andrew NG to help Indian govt on how AI can be deployed in the country

Recognising the potential and the fact that India doesn’t want to miss the bus on AI, the government has beginning to take steps.

In his Budget Presentation on February 1, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced a national programme on AI to be spearheaded by Niti Aayog. A high-level committee headed by Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar has been formed to lay out a roadmap for India’s research and development on AI and its applications with the idea to counter China’s commitment towards AI. China has already prepared a three-step roadmap to become the world leader in AI by 2030.

Separately, the ministry of electronics and IT has also set up four sub-committees on AI to study aspects such as legal, regulatory and Cybersecurity. A Ministry of Commerce commissioned task force on AI for India’s economic transformation, headed by V Kamakoti, a professor of computer science at IIT Madras, has made its recommendations to the government.

Soumitra Dutta, till recently the Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business said that AI presents an opportunity for India to establish a leadership in the world of technology, which it has lost today adding that the digital economy globally is dominated by American and Chinese companies.

“If you go back 25 years, India disrupted the software model, and created big companies such as Infosys and Wipro. But India missed the Internet and mobile disruption. AI provides the next disruption for India to create the global giants,” he said.

A December study by Accenture says AI could add $957 billion to the Indian economy or increase the country’s income by 15% in 2035 by changing the nature of work to create better outcomes.