Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister of India, while addressing the budget report of FY2023, proclaimed the importance of the development of AI in India. She emphasised the need for Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence to promote the vision of “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India”. She announced the establishment of three Centres of Excellence for AI; AI in agriculture, AI in health and AI in sustainable cities.

These centres will be initiated in top educational institutions in the country. The key industry players will join hands in conducting various interdisciplinary research to develop highly advanced applications and scalable problem solutions. “This will galvanise effective AI ecosystem and nurture quality human resources in the field,” she says.  

She declared National Data Governance Policy in order to enable access to anonymised data. It will also push the emergence of more innovations and research by start-ups and academia.

The Finance Minister also said that the Know Your Customer (KYC) process will be simplified, adopting a risk-based approach rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, and the PAN will be considered as the common identifier for business. “The financial sector regulators will also be encouraged to have a KYC system fully amenable to meet the needs of Digital India”, she added. 

To meet the needs of Amrit Kaal, she also announced ways to empower the country’s youth by bringing the focus of government on Industry 4.0 through establishing new-age courses on AI coding, IoT, Robotics, Mechatronics, 3D printing and other soft skill programs. Future Skills Prime, a joint initiative of NASSCOM, MeitY and the Government of India, aims to enhance India’s young talents for a better future.