Mains Practice Questions

Introduction:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a transformative technology that can bridge governance gaps, enhance service delivery, and improve decision-making. At the same time, uneven access risks exacerbating digital divides across regions, sectors, and socio-economic groups. To address this, the Government of India launched the IndiaAI Mission, aimed at “Making AI in India and Making AI Work for India.” With an investment of over ₹10,300 crore and deployment of 38,000 GPUs, the mission seeks to promote inclusive and responsible AI adoption nationwide.

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Role of the IndiaAI Mission in promoting equitable access to AI benefits

• Democratizing AI Infrastructure : The IndiaAI Compute Pillar ensures affordable access to high-end GPUs for startups, academia, and innovators.
  • Expansion into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities reduces the urban-rural digital divide and allows diverse regions to develop localized AI solutions, such as crop advisories for farmers or telemedicine platforms for rural healthcare.
• Developing India-Specific AI Applications : The Application Development Initiative fosters AI solutions for healthcare, agriculture, governance, climate, and education.
  • Programs like CyberGuard AI promote cybersecurity applications, while agriculture-focused AI tools assist farmers in crop planning. This ensures sectoral inclusivity and addresses region-specific developmental challenges.
• AI Skilling and Capacity Building: The IndiaAI FutureSkills program emphasises population-scale skilling, training students, ITI trainees, educators, and women entrepreneurs.
  • Establishing AI Labs in smaller cities fosters geographic inclusivity. Partnerships with industry and academia build human capital, enabling equitable participation in the AI-driven economy.
• Data Accessibility and Indigenous AI Models : Platforms like AIKosh provide 3,000+ datasets and 243 AI models, reducing the barrier of developing foundational data. Multilingual Large Multimodal AI Models ensure linguistic inclusivity, supporting innovators from diverse regions.
• Startups, Innovation, and Global Competitiveness : Through the Startup Financing Pillar and Global Acceleration Programme, IndiaAI supports scaling of innovative solutions nationally and internationally.
  • This ensures that AI benefits reach innovators across states and sectors, not just urban or high-income areas.
• Safe, Responsible, and Ethical AI : The Safe and Trusted AI pillar promotes ethical AI deployment, including bias mitigation, privacy protection, and explainability, ensuring AI benefits are equitable and inclusive.

Challenges

• Digital Divide: Limited internet penetration and digital literacy in rural areas can restrict AI access.
  • Mobile phone ownership stands at 73.4% at the all-India level, with rural ownership at 69.3% lagging behind urban ownership at 82% by nearly 13 percentage points, and female ownership at 63% trailing male ownership at 83.3% by 20 percentage points.
• Data Privacy and Security: Handling sensitive citizen data raises risks of misuse or cyber threats.
• Infrastructure Gaps: Many Tier 2/3 cities and public institutions lack AI-ready infrastructure.
• Skilling Limitations: Rapid AI evolution makes continuous reskilling a challenge, especially for marginalized groups.
• Funding and Adoption Barriers: High costs and slow adoption in public sector and SMEs can limit impact.

Conclusion:

The IndiaAI Mission provides a holistic framework to democratize AI access, foster sectoral innovation, build skilled human capital, and promote ethical deployment. While challenges like digital divides, infrastructure gaps, and privacy concerns exist, strategic initiatives under IndiaAI—combined with policy support, funding, and capacity building—can ensure AI serves as a tool for inclusive development, bridging governance gaps and enhancing equitable growth across India.