CABINET NOD FOR INDIA AI MISSION WITH ₹10,372 CR OUTLAY FOR 5 YRS

The Union Cabinet on Thursday evening approved an outlay of 10,372 crore for five years for the India AI Mission, aimed at fostering innovation in artificial intelligence through public-private partnerships.

- ASHUTOSH MISHRA

Ahead of the general elections, the government also announced the extension of ₹300 per LPG cylinder subsidy to poor women under the Ujjwala Yojana for the next financial year starting April 1. The move, likely to benefit nearly 100 million families, will cost the government ₹12,000 crore, according to a PTI report. The government had in October last year hiked the subsidy from ₹200 per 14.2-kg cylinders for up to 12 refills per year to ₹300 per bottle. The ₹300 per cylinder subsidy was for 2023-24.

Under the India AI Mission, a key focus area is to develop high-end compute capacity within the country, for which the government will facilitate the setting up of more than 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Additionally, an AI marketplace will be created to offer Al-as-a-service and pre-trained models to innovators.

Of the total outlay around ₹4,500 crore would be used for building compute infrastructure and close to ₹2,000 crore has been earmarked for financing deep-tech startups.