Global AI race: India to build own foundational models; 18,693 GPUs to power compute facility
New Delhi, Jan 30 (PTI): India on Thursday outlined global AI ambitions with plans to build its own 'foundational model' that could take on the might of ChatGPT, Deepseek R1 and others, as it lined up "most affordable" common compute facility powered by 18,693 GPUs to be used by startups and researchers.
India's bold move comes at a time when Chinese company DeepSeek has turned heads after its AI model overtook ChatGPT as the top-ranked free app on Apple's appstore, challenging the AI dominance concentrated so far with the US firms, particularly Silicon Valley frontrunner Open AI.
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw exuded confidence that India will build a foundational model that is world-class, and that it will be able to compete with best models across the globe.
On Thursday, New Delhi announced the next steps in its AI blueprint, among them, 18,693 Graphics Processing Unit or GPUs on offer by the empanelled bidders (a list that includes Jio Platforms, CMS Computers, Tata Communications, E2E Networks, Yotta Data Services, and others), and start of AI safety institution, with 8 projects approved under it.
The government is also calling for proposals to develop India's own foundational models that would be aligned to Indian context, Indian languages, culture, basically where datasets are "for our country, of our country and for our citizens" and "biases are removed".
Put simply, foundation models in generative AI are large, pre-trained models that form the base for a variety of AI applications.
The common compute facility (powered by 18,693 GPUs) would be made available at a fraction of global cost benchmarks, Vaishnaw assured. The compute facility will be "most affordable" coming significantly less than one dollar (per GPU hour) after 40 per cent cost borne by the government.
"Making modern technology accessible to everyone, that is the economic thinking of our PM... Ours is the most affordable compute facility, at this point of time," Vaishnaw said.
The Minister said there are at least six major developers/startups who would be able to build foundational models in the next 8-10 months at the outer limit, and 4-6 months at a more optimistic estimate.
"Algorithmic efficiency matters a lot, it can deliver a model at much lower cost and less time than the world has seen today," the Minister said, expressing optimism that India will have a "world class foundational model" in the coming few months.
The government, under the IndiaAI Mission, had approved Rs 10,372 crore outlay to strengthen India's AI ecosystem - a key pillar for that was enabling 10,000 GPUs for AI Compute Infrastructure. The 18,693 GPUs would offer large compute power considering that Deepseek was trained on 2,000 GPUs and ChatGPT version 4 on 25,000 GPUs.
On the applications under India AI mission, India's focus has been about utilising the power of Artificial Intelligence for solving population-scale problems, in areas such as healthcare, education, agri, logistics, weather forecasting and others.
"We launched an application proposal and I am happy to say that 18 applications have been selected for the first round of funding. These are in themes of agriculture, learning disability and climate change," the Minister said.
AI safety is in the spotlight across the world, and India AI Mission too emphasises safe and trusted models.
Vaishnaw announced that AI safety institutions will be collaborative and will act on a hub-and-spoke type model, where multiple institutions can partner to provide and develop tools, frameworks and processes needed for AI safety.
The projects approved for AI safety include areas of machine unlearning (IIT Jodhpur), synthetic Data Generation (IIT Roorkee), AI bias mitigation strategy, explainable AI framework (Defence Institute of Advanced Technology Pune), privacy enhancing strategy (IIT Delhi, IIIT Delhi, TEC), AI Ethical certification framework, AI algorithm auditing tool, and AI governance testing framework.
Asked about the issue of GPU and AI chip export curbs that the US had been talking about and whether or not it would impact India's AI mission, the Minister said India is seen as a trusted country across the world.
"We respect IP rights and considerations in technology and that is why we have signed MoUs on very important technologies. We believe that the trust that has developed will be important in every consideration and regulation that any country brings," he said, expressing confidence that the India AI Mission will flourish because of the trust the country enjoys.
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Sujit Nair raises concerns over speculation of DMK-AIADMK understanding to block TVK
Chennai: Journalist and political commentator Sujit Nair has expressed concern over speculation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam could explore a post-poll understanding to prevent Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam from forming the government in Tamil Nadu.
In a social media post, Sujit Nair said the election verdict in Tamil Nadu reflected a clear public demand for political change and argued that the mandate should be respected irrespective of political preferences.
Referring to reports and political discussions surrounding a possible understanding between the DMK and AIADMK, he said he hoped such developments remained only speculative conversations and did not turn into reality.
Nair stated that if such an alliance were to take shape, it would raise serious questions about ideological politics in the country. He said TVK had emerged through a democratic electoral process and that the legitimacy to govern in a parliamentary democracy comes from the people’s verdict.
According to him, attempts to prevent an electoral winner from forming the government through unexpected political arrangements may be constitutionally valid, but many people could view them as politically opportunistic.
He further said that such a move could particularly affect the political image of the DMK, which has historically projected itself around ideology, social justice and opposition politics. Nair said that in ideological terms, the DMK appeared closer to TVK than to the AIADMK, and joining hands with its long-time political rival only to remain in power could weaken its broader political narrative.
He added that the same questions would apply to the AIADMK as well, as the party had spent decades positioning itself against the DMK and such an arrangement could create discomfort among its cadre and supporters.
Drawing a comparison with Maharashtra politics in 2019, Nair said he had expressed similar views when the Shiv Sena formed an alliance with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after the Assembly elections.
He said post-poll alliances between long-standing political rivals often create a public perception that ideology and electoral mandates become secondary when political power equations come into play.
Nair also said such developments increase public cynicism towards politics and reinforce the belief among voters that ideology is often sidelined after elections.
He maintained that the Tamil Nadu verdict was emphatic and said respecting both the spirit and substance of the mandate was important for the credibility of democratic politics.
