The Government of India launched the IndiaAI Mission in March 2024 to foster a robust AI ecosystem tailored to national challenges. This initiative expands access to AI technologies, supports innovation, and promotes solutions for India-specific issues in sectors like health, agriculture, and education.

AIKosha, the IndiaAI Datasets Platform, serves as a central repository for AI models, datasets, development tools, and resources. It offers secure API-based access and an AI Sandbox for model training and experimentation, with strong data privacy safeguards.

Users can access Text-to-Speech models in Indian languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, and Malayalam, alongside sovereign models like those from Sarvam AI.

The platform acts as a shared library, enabling developers to build new AI tools for diverse fields. All resources are available at https://aikosh.indiaai.gov.in/home, promoting collaborative innovation across the country. This democratises AI development by providing high-quality, ethically sourced datasets and models suited to Indic contexts.

Complementing AIKosha, the iGOT initiative via the Karmayogi platform bolsters AI awareness among government officials and stakeholders. It hosts over 176 courses on AI and emerging technologies from various institutions, amassing 7,299,149 enrolments and 5,379,235 completions to date. The YUVA AI for All course, offered in English and Hindi by the IndiaAI Mission, alone records 128,848 enrolments and 83,010 completions.

These courses cover topics from AI ethics and governance to cybersecurity, generative AI, and sector-specific applications like agriculture and healthcare (see Annexure I for full list). This capacity-building effort equips public servants to leverage AI effectively in governance. It underscores the mission's focus on skilling for ethical and practical AI deployment.

The IndiaAI Start-ups Global programme, in partnership with Station F in Paris and HEC Paris, selects and supports 10 Indian AI start-ups for European market expansion. These startups innovate in governance, smart cities, document intelligence, and enterprise automation, showcasing India's maturing AI ecosystem. The programme facilitates access to global networks, enhancing international competitiveness.

Domestically, the IndiaAI Mission develops 30 applications targeting critical sectors: agriculture, health, climate change, and disaster management (details in Annexure II). Sector-specific hackathons with entities like the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, Geological Survey of India, Ministry of Ayush, Ministry of MSME, NFRA, and National Cancer Grid have identified 10 startups for scaling. These efforts drive focused, deployable AI solutions for real-world problems.

In sovereign model development, 12 teams were shortlisted in phase one for indigenous foundational AI and Large Language Models. Models from Sarvam AI, BharatGen, Gnani, and Socket, launched at the IndiaAI Impact Summit 2026, excel in Indic language benchmarks, often outperforming global frontier models. Sarvam AI's models, for instance, demonstrate superior accuracy in document understanding and Indic processing.

IndiaAI Compute addresses the need for high-performance infrastructure, empanelling over 38,000 GPUs via 14 service providers in data centres across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Noida, and Jamnagar. The portal at https://compute.indiaai.gov.in enables startups, researchers, academics, and government bodies to access affordable compute for training and inference. Expansion plans add 20,000 more GPUs, treating compute as a public good for inclusive AI growth.

The Union Budget 2026–27 introduced a long-term tax holiday for data centres and cloud infrastructure investments. The AI Impact Summit 2026 secured $250 billion in AI infrastructure commitments, signalling global confidence in India's ecosystem. These measures strengthen the data centre landscape essential for AI scaling.

Annexure I lists 176 iGOT courses, spanning AI basics, ethics, cybersecurity (e.g., "AI Ethics for Governance," "Preventing Cybercrime: AI-based Threats"), generative AI, and domain applications like "AI in Agri Food Systems" and "AI led Digital Transformation in Healthcare." Many address Indic needs, including Hindi options. This comprehensive catalogue supports widespread upskilling.

Annexure II details 30 shortlisted AI solutions, with eight in agriculture (e.g., "Krishi Sah‘AI’yak" for farmer advisories, "Rapid, chemical-free soil testing"), four in climate (e.g., "DeepFlood" for inundation mapping), seven in healthcare (e.g., "NIDAAN" for TB detection), six for learning disabilities, and five in governance. These innovations promise transformative impact in underserved areas.

Strategic policy support further reinforces this growth, with the Union Budget 2026–27 introducing long-term tax holidays for data centre and cloud investments.

From AI-powered soil testing and heatwave forecasting to multilingual court transcription and early cancer detection devices, the breadth of applications currently under development reflects a holistic approach to national digitisation.

By combining indigenous model development, massive human capital investment, and robust physical infrastructure, the IndiaAI Mission is positioning the nation as a global leader in the responsible and inclusive deployment of artificial intelligence.

The IndiaAI Mission exemplifies a holistic strategy, blending infrastructure, talent development, start-ups, and sovereign tech to position India as an AI leader. By prioritising local languages, privacy, and sectoral relevance, it builds resilient, inclusive capabilities for the future.

PIB