Will Be Top 5 in AI, Semicon by 2030: IT Minister Vaishnaw

“India will be among the top five nations leading in semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), telecom technologies and deep tech,” said Vaishnaw, at the first anniversary of the Centre’s IndiaAI Mission.

Also present at the event were Secretary S Krishnan and Additional Secretary Abhishek Singh of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government Ajay Kumar Sood, and Capacity Building Commission’s chairperson Adil Zainulbhai.

Several new initiatives were announced, including AI Kosha and the AI Compute Portal. AI Kosha is a platform for Indian datasets, providing companies, startups and researchers access to essential non-personal data for their AI projects.

The goal is to help Indian companies and startups build AI models that understand the country’s languages, context, and culture — something that foreign models like GPT, Gemini and DeepSeek currently lack.

The AI Compute Portal, to which 45 per cent of the India AI Mission's funds are allocated, will provide Indian companies easy access to GPUs at a subsidised rate. The Centre said initially, 10,000 GPUs will be provided, with over 8,000 more coming soon to the platform. 

The expectations from the India AI Mission are huge. Highlighting that the next five years are very important for India, Vaishnaw reiterated that India will get its very own GPU in the next 3-4 years. 

The race to build India’s own foundational model is also heating up, with DeepSeek shaking up the industry. The Minister also said that MeitY has so far received 67 submissions to build India’s own foundational model, and that he has told Additional Secretary Singh to select 3-5 models which are “mature”, and get the work started.

“Like we sent a mission to the moon at the fraction of the cost that the developed world did, we will also build a foundation model at a fraction of the cost that the rich world countries have done,” said the Minister.

The US has recently invested US$ 500 billion in AI infrastructure. Addressing the Stargate Project, Secretary Krishnan noted that while comparisons are often made, India’s AI allocation stands at Rs 10,372 crore (US$ 1.2 billion). 

“Of the US$ 500 billion set aside in the US for their AI compute, not one dollar comes from the government,” said Secretary Krishnan.

Unlike the US, where AI investment is led by private players without government funding, India has adopted a structured approach with clear verticals to support multiple sectors, said the Secretary.