AIRAWAT - AI platform by Niti Aayog

Earlier this month, our honourable PM Modi addressed a virtual summit on Artificial Intelligence — ​RAISE 2020. Despite the promising address, we can say that India is lagging considerably in the race for AI domination. India stands at the tenth spot among countries filing AI-related patents. The fact is, AI research cannot progress unless we have the infrastructure to support research. This is where India’s ambitious project AIRAWAT comes in.

Under the AIRAWAT initiative, the Indian government plans to tackle the challenges associated with lack of access to computing resources. Going ahead, the government will be building AI-specific compute infrastructure that will help the computing needs of Centres of Research Excellence (COREs), International Centers Transformational AI (ICRAIs), and Innovation Hubs.

Planning includes a series of supercomputers with the help of microprocessor manufacturers, like NVIDIA and Intel. The supercomputer facilities will be hosted at various academic institutes like IITs, IISc, etc and these academic institutes will be at the forefront of AI research. They are also expected to act as guides and mentors for other institutes in this domain. Also, these facilities will act as incubators of sorts for start-ups and early-stage companies. And the government is banking on this “democratic access model” to invigorate the AI ecosystem in India.

If you’re wondering whether this is unique to India — No. This isn’t a one of a kind initiative. Also, currently, we have just two supercomputers among the 500 best supercomputers in the world — 226 of which are in China, and 113 in the US. With AIRAWAT, the hope is that India can also compete with these superpowers.