Parliament Question: Constraints faced in Deploying AI

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4116

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 12.08.2026 CONSTRAINTS FACED IN DEPLOYING AI

4116. SHRI VISHALDADA PRAKASHBAPU PATIL:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to

state:

(a) whether the Government is aware that India continues to face constraints in deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) at scale due to inadequate computing infrastructure, fragmented datasets and skill shortages;

(b) if so, the details of steps being taken by the Government to resolve the aforementioned issues;

(c) whether such structural gaps are limiting India’s ability to achieve its stated ambitions of Digital India, AI-led governance and development of sovereign AI capabilities particularly in sectors like agriculture, health and public service delivery; and

(d) if so, the details of steps being taken by the Government to ensure that India does not remain dependent on foreign AI models and third-party platforms, thereby risking data sovereignty, algorithmic dependence and systemic vulnerabilities in critical governance systems? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA)

(a) and (b): India's AI strategy is based on the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision to democratize the use of technology. It aims to address India centric challenges and create economic and employment opportunities for all Indians.

The Government is cognizant of the risks associated with limited domestic capabilities in AI research ecosystems, and has adopted a multi-pronged and calibrated approach under the IndiaAI Mission to build technological sovereignty across the AI value chain.

IndiaAI Mission The Government approved the IndiaAI Mission on 7th March 2024 with a total outlay of Rs.

10,371.92 crore over five years. It establishes a robust and inclusive AI ecosystem aligned with India's development goals.

Compute: ● 15 Compute Service Providers have been empaneled over four rounds. ● 237 projects have been approved for subsidized compute support, with 93.18 lakh GPU hours sanctioned.● A Purchase Order has been issued for a High-Performance AI Compute System of approximately 1.1 EFLOPS at the NIC Data Centre, Shastri Park, Delhi.

Talent development: ● 686 fellowships awarded across undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes in 178 institutions. ● YUVA AI for All programme completed by over 26.5 lakh individuals.

IndiaAI labs: ● 27 India Data and AI Labs established, supporting training for more than 3,500 students. ● 188 additional Labs have been identified for establishment across ITIs/Polytechnics.

(c) and (d): The Government has undertaken a structured approach to mainstream AI in governance and priority sectors, including agriculture, health and public service delivery, so as

to address the referred structural gaps:

IndiaAI Application Development Initiative (IADI):

Through innovation challenges, grant programmes and hackathons, IADI has built a pipeline of AI solutions across priority sectors including healthcare, agriculture, governance, climate, cybersecurity and financial regulation, with pathways from ideation to pilot deployment and scale. Under this pillar, the IndiaAI Mission has launched 11 national-level hackathons and innovation challenges across these sectors.

i. The IndiaAI Innovation Challenge focused on AI solutions in healthcare, agriculture, governance, learning disabilities and climate change. 30 solutions were shortlisted in Stage 1 for pilot implementation with Central Ministries, States and Public Sector Organisations. Subsequently, five teams (one per sector) were selected for national- level deployment, with pilots underway across multiple States.

ii. The IndiaAI I4C CyberGuard AI Hackathon, conducted in collaboration with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), developed AI solutions for classification of cybercrime complaints and identification of emerging crime patterns on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP). The shortlisted solution has been integrated with I4C systems.

iii. The IndiaAI–GSI Mineral Targeting with AI Hackathon, organised in partnership with the Geological Survey of India, focused on leveraging AI/ML for advanced mineral prognostication using geoscientific datasets such as geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and remote sensing.

iv. The Cancer AI & Technology Challenge (CATCH), in collaboration with the National Cancer Grid, aims to strengthen cancer screening, diagnostics, treatment support, and healthcare operations. The top shortlisted teams are undergoing ethical review prior to implementation.

v. The IndiaAI Face Authentication Challenge aims to enhance the integrity of public examinations through AI-enabled de-duplication and one-to-many photo verification.

Two teams have been selected for deployment at the Union Public Service Commission

(UPSC), and deployment has commenced.vi. The IndiaAI Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Challenge aims to automate extraction, classification, validation, and structuring of information from complex multilingual documents. Two shortlisted teams are being deployed at UPSC, and implementation is underway.

vii. The IndiaAI Innovation Challenge 2026, supported by the Ministry of Ayush and the Ministry of MSME, promotes AI solutions for AYUSH healthcare and MSMEs.

Applications have been received across multiple problem statements, with Stage 1 evaluations underway, followed by prototype development and deployment. viii. The IndiaAI Challenge for Transforming Governance, in partnership with the Real Time Governance Society (RTGS), Government of Andhra Pradesh, addresses AI use cases across key departments. Applications have been received, Stage 1 evaluations are underway, and prototype development and pilot implementation are planned.

ix. The IndiaAI Financial Compliance Reporting Challenge, in collaboration with the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), promotes AI-enabled compliance monitoring and risk assessment. x. The CDSCO–IndiaAI Health Innovation Acceleration Hackathon, organised with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), focuses on AI-driven automation of regulatory workflows, including document summarisation, anonymisation, and inspection reporting. Prototype development and deployment are planned.

xi. The PMJAY Auto Adjudication Hackathon, in collaboration with the National Health Authority (NHA), supports the development of AI-based adjudication frameworks for PMJAY claims, resulting in multiple prototypes and pilot deployments.Center of Excellence:

● 58 AI Centres of Excellence have been approved for establishment across States and Union Territories, of which 22 have been approved and initiated across 13 States/UTs to date.

Sovereign Models:

20 indigenous foundation model proposals, comprising 12 Large Multimodal Models and 8 Small Language Models, have been identified for support. Notable outputs already launched

include: • Sarvam AI (Sarvam 30B/105B, Indus) • BharatGen (Param2 17B text, Patram 7B VLM, Shrutam-2 ASR) • Gnani.AI (5B Speech to Speech) • Varyaa (Image & Text to Video Generation) • Avataar (Varya 14B Distilled Video-Gen) • NeuroDX (MANAS 1 40M and 400M: neurological screening) • Zenteiq (BrahmAI 1B Tokeniser Suite) • Shodh AI (1.6B multi-scale physics prototype, Agentic Tool Calling framework) *******