Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, on 30th March 2022, gave a written reply at the parliament, enumerating various steps taken by the government to promote up-skilling and re-skilling in the field of Artificial Intelligence. In the report, the Minister remarked on the launch of the National AI Portal- INDIAai and explained the portal's contributions in the field. 

The initiatives mentioned by the Minister focus on the digital enablement of citizens in the field of AI, including those belonging to the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. The Ministry of Electronics and IT has initiated a program titled FutureSkills Prime in collaboration with NASSCOM. So far, 7 Lakh candidates have signed up on the FutureSkills PRIME portal, out of which 1.2 Lakh candidates have completed their courses. Also, 524 Trainers and 4292 Government officials have been trained in these technologies.  

Furthermore, the FutureSkills PRIME program follows an ‘aggregator of aggregators’ approach for digital skills training on a national scale. It aims to re-skill/up-skill aspirants in emerging technologies to stay relevant in their present job with improved prospects. The program also targets those who may have lost jobs due to disruptive and emerging technologies. It considers employment linkages such as a ‘Career Prime’ web page on the platform and an integrated career Portal that provides information on IT-ITeS jobs, internships, apprenticeships, hackathons etc. 

In the statement, Minister Chandrasekhar also spoke about the various steps taken by the government to promote capacity building in AI, including the initiation of ‘The Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme’ to enhance the number of PhDs in Electronics System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) and IT/IT-enabled services (IT/ITES) in the country.  

The National Program for Government Schools, Responsible AI for Youth- was launched to make the youth AI-ready and reduce India's AI skill gap. As a result, more than 50,000 students came up with their ideas in the field of AI. Intel AI coaches trained them for one year.  

The government has created several Centers of Excellence (CoE) on emerging technologies to foster innovation through research, including AI. Alongside these initiatives, the Department of Science and Technology is implementing National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems to promote R&D, Human Resource Development, Technology Development, Entrepreneurship Development, International Collaboration etc. Responsible AI for Social Empowerment- RAISE 2020 was the first-of-its-kind global meeting on AI, said the statement. It was attended by over 79000 stakeholders from 147 participating countries.  

According to the report, the government has also published the National Strategy for AI in June 2018 and proposes developing an ecosystem for AI research and adoption. In addition, the Government of India has also joined the league of leading economies, including the USA, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore as a member of the GPAI- Global Partnership Alliance, said the statement.