Make AI India initiative a game-changer

Visakhapatnam: IT Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITAAP) president Sreedhar Kosaraju on Thursday said the proposals made in the Union Budget on Make Artificial Intelligence in India, for India and the establishment of three Centres of Excellence for AI in top institutions and encourage disciplinary research in agriculture, health, and sustainable cities are very significant.

In his comments to the proposals made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he told Bizz Buzz that it was his opinion that the establishment of AI centers of excellence is a significant step in India's journey towards becoming a leader in AI. It will be a game-changer, he opined.

Kosaraju said the government has already created the roadmap for AI in the country through collaborations with MeitY, NASSCOM, and DRDO. The Centre for AI and Robotics (CAIR) has also been established to drive AI-related research and development.

As AI is ubiquitous and cross cutting everything, the government also should come up with a framework and scheme to engage corporates along with academic institutions to participate in AI. He said it is now the time to bring exclusive national AI policy and also AI act.

Referring to the Government of India's decision to launch PMKVY 4.0 to skill lakhs of youth within the next three years, he said the GoI will introduce on-the-job training across all short-term courses while launching new age courses that will be industry-specific as part of the revamped PMKVY 4.0 GOI 'to set up 30 Skill India international centres' across different States.

The digital ecosystem for skilling will be further expanded with the launch of a unified skill India digital platform for enabling demand-based formal skilling, linking with employers including MSMEs and facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes to provide stipend support to 4.7 million youth in three years. "The Finance minister also announced plans to launch courses in coding, artificial intelligence, drone technology, IoT, robotics, among others, which will give a shot in the arm to deep tech," he said. Kosaraju said being the country with the largest young workforce in the world, skilling and innovation are the two key elements that will position India on top place in the global map. Upgrading the PMKVY with on-the-job training the niche areas of skilling will improve skilled manpower.

"There is a huge gap in niche skills. As per statistics, we have five million IT workforce in the country but only 0.3 million are into niche skills. One model will not work across all the skill sectors. GoI should set up a separate agency with industry giants to meet the skilling in the niche areas. Though we have some initiatives like future skills of NASSCOM, we need to scale them up and should bring multiple players into the picture," he said. The ITAAP president welcomed the announcement to extend income tax benefits from March 31, 2023 to March 31, 2024 and the benefit of carry-forward of losses from seven to 10 years.

On the 'Amrit Kaal' budget, he was happy at the announcement to promote agriculture-based startups. An Agriculture Accelerator Fund to be set up to encourage agritech startups to help entrepreneurs bring innovative and affordable solutions for farmers' challenges and enhance profitability and bring modern technology.