India pledges to help start-ups exploit artificial intelligence in 2024
India’s government has pledged to create computing capacity that private start-ups and researchers can use to help them exploit artificial intelligence (AI).
The country’s minister of state for electronics and information technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said the capacity will be created by the public sector and separately in collaboration with private companies. Work will start on the project in early 2024.
“Our aim is to create an enabling framework of AI compute capacity. We will also be creating what we think will be globally the largest and most diverse set of datasets that will be available for our research and start-up ecosystem,” said Chandrasekhar, speaking at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) summit held recently in Delhi.
He added that Indian companies are working on AI, but said access to powerful computing capacity is limited.
“One of the things that we will end up doing through a policy framework and legal framework is restricting access to Indian data. Only those models that are trusted and are safe will get access to it. We have seen in the last four or five years that unrestricted access to data in democratic countries has been misused by certain countries… we are putting a brake on it,” he said.
The minister said that in the first six to nine months of 2024 there should be an agreement among like-minded countries about the basic principles around the ground rules for AI. “This is not abstract conversations… this has to be a global process and must have maximum participation. And this cannot wait — there has to be an urgency to this,” said Chandrasekhar.
India looking to strengthen ties with Europe
The Indian government has met with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to discuss the progress of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with EFTA nations and explore ways to further strengthen partnerships across key sectors.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal met with the European delegation led by Swiss State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Helene Budliger Artieda, and Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry, Jan Christian Vestre.
The meeting follows up on the discussions held in the summer between EFTA and the Indian government, which included industry stakeholders from the pharmaceutical, machinery and electronics industries of the EFTA states.
The recent discussions were described as “fruitful and detailed”, tackling crucial issues. The Indian minister said both parties shared the goal of swiftly concluding the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) negotiations.
The primary objective of these negotiations is to establish a “fair, mutually beneficial, and comprehensive” trade deal between India and EFTA.
Over the past few months, India and EFTA have significantly intensified their engagement, highlighting the commitment of both parties to achieving an early conclusion to the TEPA negotiations.
Minister Goyal expressed his satisfaction with the progress made during the meeting, highlighting the constructive and collaborative nature of the discussions.
The Business Standard website reported that Switzerland’s Ambassador to India, Ralf Heckner, has said he is optimistic that the EFTA deal with India would be wrapped up before the 2024 general elections.
Parliamentary elections in India are due in early 2024.
The Ambassador stressed on the importance of the proposed trade deal for unlocking innovation and investment opportunities. “Both sides have been negotiating very closely and seriously over the last more than 12 months. I remain positive that the deal would be wrapped up before the (2024) elections,” he added.
“If India wants innovation, it needs to work with about 12 to 15 countries, and one of those countries is Switzerland for a world of investments and innovation.
“We will have a more strategic innovation relationship with India.”
Negotiations on the agreement were officially launched in January 2008. The EFTA members – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – are not part of the European Union (EU).
EFTA-India merchandise trade was worth more than $6.1 billion in 2022.
