India rolls out AI vision to secure cyberspace and drive economic growth

new delhi: india's artificial intelligence (ai) strategy, aligned with the prime minister's vision of technological inclusion, aims to address domestic challenges, foster job creation, and establish the country as a global ai powerhouse, the government informed the lok sabha on friday.union minister of state for electronics and information technology jitin prasada said the indiaai mission, launched in march 2024, seeks to build a robust and inclusive ai ecosystem through seven key pillars, including open-source model deployment and governance tools that account for india's linguistic diversity.he said india's it sector generates over usd 250 billion in annual revenues and employs more than six million people. “india ranks among the top countries in ai skills, capabilities, and policy frameworks,” he noted, adding that india is also the second-largest contributor to ai projects on github.to support developers, the ministry of electronics and it (meity) is hosting open-source models from the llama family on the airawat compute infrastructure managed by cdac-pune, with api access available on a chargeable basis.highlighting efforts to combat ai-related threats, prasada listed several legal and regulatory measures under the information technology act, 2000, bharatiya nyay sanhita, 2023, and the digital personal data protection act, 2023. these include provisions addressing identity theft, misinformation, deepfakes, defamation, and cybercrime.the minister said it rules, 2021, place legal obligations on intermediaries and social media platforms to act against prohibited content and ensure a grievance redressal mechanism, including a 24-hour window for addressing complaints related to morphed or ai-generated content.the government has also launched the certified security professional in artificial intelligence (cspai) programme and issued multiple cert-in advisories, including guidelines for the secure use of generative ai and ai-based applications.an advisory group under the principal scientific advisor to the prime minister is working on a regulatory framework for india-specific ai governance, comprising members from academia, industry, and government.