AI Revolution: Transforming India's IT Sector with $400 Billion Vision

At the AI-India Impact Summit, PM Narendra Modi emphasized AI's role in transforming rather than replacing India's IT sector, predicting growth to $400 billion by 2030 through AI-enabled outsourcing. The government is pushing for AI ecosystem development via the IndiaAI Mission, ensuring world-class infrastructure and workforce skilling.

During the AI-India Impact Summit in the capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping rather than replacing India's IT sector. He predicted that this transformative force could propel the industry to an ambitious $400 billion mark by 2030. This summit represents the inaugural large-scale AI convening hosted in the Global South.

In an exclusive interview with ANI's text service, Prime Minister Modi detailed AI's growing influence on the IT industry and the strategic initiatives undertaken by the Indian government to fortify the sector. He highlighted that AI offers both significant opportunities and challenges, projecting the IT sector's growth through AI-driven outsourcing and domain-specific automation.

The Prime Minister emphasized the non-disruptive role of AI, maintaining that it fundamentally transforms rather than displaces the IT sector. While general-purpose AI tools are prevalent, enterprise-level AI adoption remains concentrated in certain sectors. Traditional IT firms continue to play pivotal roles in addressing complex business challenges.

Highlighting the government's commitment, PM Modi unveiled the comprehensive 'IndiaAI Mission' strategy designed to cultivate a robust domestic AI ecosystem. This includes exceeding initial targets for GPU availability, ensuring affordable access to world-class AI infrastructure for startups and enterprises, and creating institutional frameworks.

To bolster this infrastructure, four Centres of Excellence in Healthcare, Agriculture, Education, and Sustainable Cities have been established, alongside five National Centres for Skilling to equip the workforce with industry-relevant AI skills. The Prime Minister revealed plans to augment the AI compute infrastructure with an additional 20,000 GPUs, bringing the total beyond 38,000 GPUs, and provided at competitive rates.

The next phase of India's AI strategy will hone in on design, research, and development to tailor solutions to India's specific needs. Modi indicated that AI-related investments could surpass USD 200 billion, including USD 90 billion already committed, as negotiations with major companies continue during the summit.

(With inputs from agencies.)