Indian minister Ashwini Vaishnaw among TIME's most influential people in AI

Indian Electronics and Information Technology (I-T) Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is among TIME Magazine's100 Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence (AI). According to a report by TIME, India is trying to becomea major player in the world of AI and Vaishnaw is leading this effort.

"While the country has yet to create binding AI laws, for the past year, it has chaired the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence—an international initiative to support states in governing AI," the report said.

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India recently hosted the Global IndiaAI Summit in July where Vaishnaw emphasised the need to democratise technology so that it is accessible to all. The summit was attended by more than 2,000 AI expertsincluding senior leaders from OpenAI and Microsoft, and delegates from over 50 countries.

The IndiaAI initiative

The report pointed out that most of India's AI efforts have been funnelled through the IndiaAI initiative, managed by Vaishnaw's ministry.

"The ministry aims to secure over 10,000 Graphic Processing Units, the chips that power most AI technology, to increase the country’s computing capacity; provide finance for local startups; increase access to high-quality datasets; expand access to AI educational opportunities for Indians; and develop its own state-of-the-art AI models," the report added.

"Under Vaishnaw’s leadership, the country hopes to become one of the top five countries for semiconductor manufacturing—a key component for modern AI systems—within the next five years," it further said.

The report also highlighted the challenges that Vaishnaw would face in realising the above ambitions.

"India's tech sector struggles with low private R&D investment and a lack of advanced manufacturing ecosystems. Its educational system is also catching up to produce the specialised workforce needed for cutting-edge AI and semiconductor development," the report said.

(With inputs from agencies)