India boosts AI mission with ₹5,000cr investment in NVIDIA GPUs
What's the story
The Indian government plans to invest around ₹5,000 crore of the total ₹10,372 crore budgeted for the India AI Mission, into Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
A major chunk of this fund shall go to NVIDIA.
A senior official from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) revealed this during the Global IndiaAI Summit in New Delhi.
The investment aims to boost computational capabilities for start-ups and enterprises engaged in AI research and development.
Subsidy scheme
Government to subsidize GPU costs for private sector
Abhishek Singh, the Additional Secretary of MeitY, announced the Centre has earmarked around ₹5,000 crore to acquire more than 10,000 GPUs.
However, he clarified that the government will not directly purchase these GPUs, but will subsidize part of their cost to encourage private sector investment.
Policy details
User choice and misuse prevention
Singh further elaborated that the government's goal is not to dictate which GPUs to use, but to support private investments while making computing capacity more affordable.
The subsidy will lower costs for those needing computational power such as start-ups developing AI models or conducting research.
To prevent potential misuse of subsidized computing resources, the Centre plans to implement checks and balances.
Expansion strategies
Exploring mechanisms to broaden GPU resource availability
MeitY Secretary S Krishnan claimed the government is considering mechanisms like viability gap funding or a voucher-based system, to expedite and increase the availability of GPU resources across the country.
The emphasis on user choice as well as prevention of misuse, will ensure that the benefits of this investment reach the right hands, contributing to India's growth as a global AI powerhouse.