2023 witnessed numerous developments from the Government of India. In this story, let us take a look at top AI developments by the Government of India in the year 2023.

National Deep Tech Startup Policy: National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP) Consortium announces the draft policy for public consultation; seeking public feedback till September 15, 2023.  

The Prime Minister's Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC), in its 21st meeting held on July 7, 2022, recommended the creation of a National Consortium and a Working Group to propose a comprehensive policy framework to address the needs and strengthen the Indian deep tech startup ecosystem. 

Digital Personal Data Protection Bill: The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, 8th August 2023. Bill provides for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognizes both the rights of the individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process such personal data for lawful purposes and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. 

The bill protects digital personal data by providing the obligations of Data Fiduciaries, rights and duties of Data Principals, and financial penalties for breach of rights, duties and obligations. The bill also seeks to achieve the introduction of data protection law with minimum disruption while ensuring necessary change in the way Data Fiduciaries process data, enhance the Ease of Living and the Ease of Doing Business, and enable India’s digital economy and its innovation ecosystem. 

Fighting deep fakes: Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & IT Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, interacted with representatives from academia, industry bodies and social media companies on the need to ensure effective response to deep fake. 

It was agreed during the discussion that government, academia, social media companies and NASSCOM will jointly work towards responding to deepfake. It was further agreed that within next 10 days, actionable items on the following four pillars would be identified: 

• 1. Detection: Deepfake content should be detected before and after such content is posted 
• 2. Prevention: There should be an effective mechanism for preventing propagation of deepfake content 
• 3. Reporting: Effective and expeditious reporting and grievance redressal mechanism should be available
• 4. Awareness: Mass awareness on the issue of deepfake should be created

Further, with immediate effect, MeitY will commence an exercise for assessing and drafting necessary regulations to curb the menace of deepfake. For this purpose, MeitY will invite comments from the public on MyGov portal.

AI based Gajraj system: The Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw opines that the AI-based surveillance system can alert loco pilots well in time about the presence of elephants on tracks. The implementation cost of the project on the 700-km tracks will be ₹181 crore. 

The minister stated that they have made some improvements in the system based on their field experience and now it detects the presence of elephants on tracks with 99.5 percent accuracy. Elephants had been saved up to this point with the aid of this technology. The officials are also working with the forest department to identify the scope of the project.

In September this year, the Northeast Frontier railway had hailed the system and said its introduction of 11 elephant corridors in the Northeast aided in the elimination of elephant deaths due to train accidents. Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) introduced the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) in December 2022 in 11 elephant corridors – five in Alipurduar division and six in Lumding division.