The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is tasked with uplifting and fortifying India’s technology might. Founded in 2016, MeitY has been on a mission to empower and enable the development of technologies like AI, IoT, robotics, immersive technologies, 3D printing and the like – reckoned to play a key role in transforming India as a digital-first nation, and augment the lofty goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

At RAISE 2020, the MeitY showcase was a revelation – as it provided a glimpse into allied initiatives and departments that either work under MeitY or are associated heavily with MeitY. Here’s a look at what they’re doing to boost India’s might as a tech hub

STPI: Omkar Rai, Director General of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) elaborated on the mission to capitalize on software product innovation in India – the National Policy on Software Products aims to make India a software market worth $80bn by 2025, while making the startup ecosystem more inclusive. The MeitY Startup Hub was started in 2019 to promote meaningful interactions between key stakeholders, enable greater access to capital, markets and mentors for startups. He added that AI is central to this mission of boosting the economy, and Learning Centers are being planned across India in AI, ML, immersive tech, healthcare, fintech and multimedia.

C-DAC: Dr Hemant Darbari, Director General of C-DAC spoke of the journey of C-DAC. 32 years ago, C-DAC was set up with the primary goal of building supercomputers. Over the years, C-DAC has set out on many initiatives including the Indian Language Computing Solutions, health informatics and applications of technology & electronics. Today, C-DAC is pioneering R&D in the information technology and electronics domain in India. Some of its accomplishments include commissioning supercomputers Param Shavak, Param Siddhi, Param Shavak Shrishti. It is also spearheading the National SuperComputing Mission and the Indian Languages Translation Mission, utilising AI and HPC to impact social sectors and help develop bilingual capabilities of Indians with machines.

NIC: The National Informatics Centre, led by Director General Neeta Varma, is at the forefront of making data more accessible, and is promoting the use of AI to make these datasets relevant and impactful. To date, more than 420000 datasets, powered by APIs, are open to the government for use in sectors like healthcare, urban governance and agriculture. In addition, 349 Chief Data Officers (CDOs) have been appointed to help government agencies capitalise on this data bank and drive meaningful use. An open API framework on the NIC cloud, enabling interoperability is making data a very powerful tool for the AI revolution in India.

MyGov and NeGD: Abhishek Singh, CEO of MyGov and President and CEO of NeGD spent some time talking about both initiatives. MyGov was initiated with the sole purpose of driving citizen engagement through technology. It has more than 9.5 million users, and landmark initiatives include Clean Ganga, Girl Child Education, Skill Development and Healthy India. There are more than 10,000 posts per week on various issues that are analyzed and presented as suggestions for government departments to transform them into actionable agenda items. Other major initiatives spearheaded by NeGD include Responsible AI for Youth, in partnership with Intel to teach AI modules to schoolchildren, and Indiaai – the national AI portal in association with NASSCOM. 

NASSCOM Centres of Excellence for IoT & AI - Headed by CEO Sanjeev Malhotra, NASSCOM CoEs for IoT and AI are located in strategic tech and industrial hubs Bangalore, Gurgaon, Gandhinagar and Vizag, and are established to drive cocreation and industry partnerships in areas like healthcare, manufacturing, smart cities and renewable energy. The CoEs foster and nurture deeptech startups, and engage very closely with industry leaders to identify their innovation requirements, build a pipeline of pilot projects, and enable better market access.