Introduction

The report has been published by NASSCOM in August, 2020 after taking into account recommendations from industry leaders. 

With the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of data and digital transformation has been felt urgently. One thing that has become clear is the fact that both healthcare crisis during pandemic and restarting the economy post the pandemic, can be greatly addressed by data-driven AI. In other words, data and AI can address dual goals of economic and social value creation and recovery. Given this background, the report showcases that an integrated data utilization strategy can add $450- $500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025. However, to achieve that a co-ordinated program is required across five building blocks along with promotion of R&D and innovation in the field of AI. 

The report highlights that on the back of data and AI, India can achieve the bold vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2025. However, to do so, AI needs to be extensively utilized in all sectors ranging from agriculture, MSMEs, financial services, healthcare to energy and logistics. Having said that, it is believed that nearly 45% of this visionary value will come from consumer goods and retail, agriculture and banking and insurance sectors. 

The report then shifts gear to highlight the fact how AI can drive India’s vision of inclusive development in 3 areas namely effective COVID-19 response and economic recovery, spearheading equitable growth and enhancing talent capabilities to catapult India into the global hub of AI and data services. To achieve these outcomes, it also lays out six co-ordinated actions in the next 18 months to catalyse data utilisation and adoption of AI in India. Such actions include launching a National Program for AI to be steered by an apex body in collaboration with various ministries, identifying datasets of national importance based on selected initiatives and creating a technology platform as marketplaces for public and private data and AI services and creating schemes to engage the AI ecosystem which includes industry, start-ups and academia. To create a favourable ecosystem for data and AI, the report vividly outlines four steps which include creating an empowered and independent regulator to catalyse AI adoption, driving AI adoption through lighthouse projects thereby creating demand for such services, using PPP models to develop data and AI infrastructures and identifying priority themes for research and innovation aligned with national AI strategy. 

Relevance of the Report

The report, very clearly, highlights the 5 key building blocks that will promote increased data utilization and adoption of AI in the country. In fact, countries that are actively promoting data utilization and AI are driving such initiatives across these 5 building blocks. They are a) strategy, where the focus will be on developing a data and AI vision for the country, identifying priority use case based on their impact and preparing a long-term implementation plan, b) data, where effort will be made assess quality of the gathered data and align on gaps to be filled and develop programs to generate and provision data at a large scale, c) technology stack, where the main objective will be to create platforms to securely host data, AI services, models and open-source libraries, d) talentto define AI-specific roles and estimate the supply-demand gap in the AI workforce and e) execution which will be headed by an empowered central apex body. 

Key Takeaways



• Data and AI has the potential to play a strong enabling role across sectors. If India acts quickly and judiciously, it can become the first country to launch a holistic data utilization and AI effort post the pandemic. Sectors such as consumer goods and retail, agriculture and banking and finance stands to be most benefitted through efficient marketing and sales, operations and risk detection.
• Multi-faceted use of AI can help realise India’s vision of inclusive development be it effective COVID-19 response and economic recovery or catapulting India to the global hub for AI and data services. 
• India should seize this opportunity and actively promote data and AI utilization through the 5 main building blocks. Countries that are actively leveraging data have also adhered to these blocks. Interestingly, India has already announced plans in some of these areas.
• To create a vibrant data economy, a dedicated and independent apex body with clear roles and responsibility should be formed that should define and enforce data standards. Above all, for a successful implementation of plans, a mutual partnership from ministries backed by adequate talent is needed. To succeed, it is desirable to adopt a test and learn approach for any initiative taken in this direction.