Centre readies Artificial Intelligence push as 5G technology knocksSep 6 (AZINS) The government plans to set up a centre of excellence in Artificial Intelligence as the country leapfrogs to the next level of technology with the onset of 5G.

The Center for Excellence in AI will be set up by National Informatics Center (NIC), under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, in the national capital. The aim is to have robust security solutions for cyberspace as India moves towards a digital society, a senior telecom ministry official said.

The centre will work in co-ordination with other ministries to offer solutions related to various sectors. Through it, NIC will enable many government entities/ministries to implement technologies in their sphere. The IT ministry is also working to formulate standards and regulations around blockchain technology, as ministry official said.

The ministry had earlier set up four committees to encourage research in AI to be headed by directors of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Nasscom and eminent researchers. The four committees included one on platforms and data for AI, second on leveraging AI for identifying National Missions in key sectors, third on mapping technological capabilities, key policy enablers, skilling, re-skilling and R&D and lastly on cybersecurity, safety, legal and ethical issues.

NIC is also in the process of establishing a centre of excellence for data analytics. The work for the establishment of data analytics platform by inducting various open source and proprietary analytic tools such as data warehouse, business intelligence and data mining has already been started.

Many government departments have plans to adopt AI in their various streams going forward. Commerce ministry had set up a taskforce last year to explore how AI can be leveraged for India's economic growth and the report had recommended suggestions for specific domains where AI can be implemented. It had also identified challenges associated with it. The taskforce had recommended an Inter-Ministerial National Artificial Intelligence Mission to act as a nodal agency for coordinating AI related activities in India.

Also, NITI Aayog has formulated a National Strategy Plan for AI in consultation with the ministries and the private sector, and a discussion paper on National Strategy on Artificial Intelligence with a focus on healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, smart mobility and transportation was put out for public comments. NITI Aayog will come up with first-ever national policy on AI.

Data will be the key enabler for driving the usage of new technologies and there has been an unprecedented surge in data consumption in India in last two years. 5G, though, commercially is expected to come around 2020 in India.

Artificial intelligence, machine to machine communications, internet of things, etc, are the next buzz words in the industry. All these processes are expected to improve efficiency and reduce the time taken for completion of a task. Besides, they will open a new window of opportunities for many firms to offer solutions in areas including education, health, agriculture, smart cities.

THE NEXT LEVEL

    The centre will work in co-ordination with other ministries to offer solutions related to various sectors 
    Through it, NIC will enable many government entities/ministries to implement technologies in their sphere