The ‘National AI Portal (https://indiaai.gov.in)’, celebrated its first anniversary on May 28, 2021, in a virtual event attended by nearly 400 participants and dignitaries.
The National AI Portal is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and Nasscom. It serves as a central hub for AI-related news, learning, articles, events and activities etc., in India and beyond.
The portal was launched by the Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Law and Justice and Communications, Ravi Shankar Prasad on May 30, 2020.
The anniversary event covered Launches, Fireside Chat Session, and ‘AI PeCharcha’, wherein key leaders from MeitY, NeGD, Nasscom and knowledge partner Infosys conducted a discussion on how India can become a global AI leader and explored ideas around implementing trustworthy AI solutions.
To mark the completion of one year of operations, INDIAai showcased its achievements through a video, which was followed by the release of a report titled ‘One year of INDIAai’.
A new look of the website homepage was also unveiled at the event. In the past year, INDIAai has covered over 550 Articles, conducted 10 Webinars, 34 Podcasts, listed over 250 startups, 23 investment funds, 30 colleges, 76 AI case studies, 75 central and 30 state initiatives, and 48 research reports.
The event’s key dignitaries included Infosys Founder & Non-Executive Chairman Nandan Nilekani; Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Secretary Ajay Sawhney; Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh and National eGovernance Division (NeGD) President and CEO Abhishek Singh.
In his opening remarks, Abhishek Singh said that the Portal had achieved significant milestones it had set out to accomplish.
“In the near future, the portal would showcase more and more AI initiatives from the public sector and constantly strive to remain as the top choice for AI-related knowledge repository amongst the AI community,” said Abhishek Singh.
In an exclusive Fireside Chat conducted by Debjani Ghosh with NandanNilekani and Ajay Sawhney, critical topics such as data integrity, platformisation for AI, and scaling AI in sectors like healthcare, agriculture and urban governance were discussed at length.
Speaking at the Fireside Chat session, Nandan Nilekani remarked that the time is right to apply AI across the board to India’s most challenging issues, whether it’s healthcare, education or judicial pendency.
“Both on the business side as well as on the Government and national side, we are well-placed to apply AI in a very unique way to India’s challenges as well as opportunities,” said Nandan Nilekani.
MeitY Secretary Ajay Sawhney added the single most important area is to apply AI, to improve services, the quality of service delivery and decision making.
“The future lies in the uplifting of digital initiatives to national public digital platforms, which are simple, nimble and bring together existing systems, players and open the doors for innovation and value-added services roping in the ecosystem players,” said Ajay Sawhney.
In the AI mission that is now taking shape, Ajay Sawhney said it is the applied parts of AI, which will get primary focus. “We must recognize that our primary strength in India is our country’s scale and technology will play a phenomenal role in this,” said Ajay Sawhney.
Debjani Ghosh said in the last 1-1.5 years, India has seen the true potential of Artificial Intelligence. “We have also realised that the ways for AI are just beginning,” said Debjani Ghosh.
The event also witnessed the monthly ‘AI PeCharcha’based on the theme ‘Implementing Trustworthy AI Solutions’, wherein opening remarks were given by Abhishek Singh, P&CEO, NeGD and KarthikeyanNeelakandan(Head, Infosys India).
AI experts from Infosys-Dr. Ravi Kr G.V.V (Head of Advanced Engineering Group, Infosys)& ThirumalaArohi, VP & Head of Infosys Education, Training & Assessment, and Shyam Kr Doddavula (AVP & Principal Product Architect) also discussed several facets of reliable, ethical and responsible use of AI.
The AI-based operational excellence framework and Live Enterprise Application Platform (LEAP) and several implemented use cases were also demonstrated, especially the use of AI in GST Network for fraud detection.
