"AI Pe Charcha," a digital event, was organized on 28th January 2021. The event, which was held in continuation to the RAISE 2020 summit organized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, witnessed many industry experts involved in an in-depth panel discussion. 

The discussion was hosted by Mr. Abhishek Singh, CEO MyGov, CEO NeGD, and also MD & CEO, Digital India Corporation. He expressed his views on the need for a more inclusive approach towards AI and related projects. He emphasized how we shall work towards building more AI compatible infrastructure and also mentioned the efforts that C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) is putting the direction. He expressed his gratitude towards Microsoft for being the knowledge partner for the event. 

The event was moderated by Dr. Rohini Srivathsa, NTO Microsoft India, who is responsible for driving innovation and growth through the tech industry for the last 25 years. Dr. Rohini brought the panel's and the participants' attention to the report released by Shri. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister Electronics and Information Technology and Communications that talked about the value of data in the Indian context. The report was created and compiled by NASSCOM and had presented the impact of data and AI on India's GDP to be one and a half-trillion dollars by 2025.

Dr. Rohini shared her views and said that in order to achieve the honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi's vision of digital India, we need initiatives from the government, startups, and industries.

She also stated that the reason for choosing the topic, which was "Citizen Centric Services," was the fact that these services cut across most ministries and have a direct impact on how citizens experience the government's services and how they interact with the government.

The keynote speaker for the panel discussion was Mr. Rob Elsinga, NTO Microsoft The Netherlands. He gave a European perspective towards the usage of AI and mentioned a report that Microsoft created along with Ernst & Young, which surveyed 213 public sector companies. The report concluded that when it comes to the implementation of AI, most of the companies get stuck at the Proof of Concept stage. In continuation to that, only 4% use AI for their prime missions. He also said that skilling is the biggest barrier that AI is facing currently.

Mentioning various projects that Microsoft is involved in few close to his heart include the one where the European Parliament is breaking the language barriers by converting live speech to text in 24 languages.

He also mentioned various projects that the Dutch government is involved in for strategic planning and are powered by AI, such as real-time decision-making on traffic and transportation based on multiple parameters such as air quality and noise levels.

Ms. Shaily Goel, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft India, talked extensively about the application areas for citizens across sectors in India. She enlightened the participants with various demos showing the work that AI is doing in India and the level of accuracy that is currently being exhibited and is being aimed for.  

She very interestingly showed how the Teach-bots have gained popularity during this pandemic and how this model can benefit rural education any replicating the urban teaching models. She gave various informative and in-depth applications of cognitive services (Azure), the comprehensive pre-trained AI.

The session was kept interactive with live Q&A sessions where people from various domains, students, and industry experts on the subject shared their questions, ideas, and feedback.

The hour's need is to have a comprehensive and holistic approach towards AI application in India along with the right skilling projects.