Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics are propelling innovation in many parts of the world. For example, China has committed $150 billion towards their goal of becoming a world leader in AI by 2030. However, the U.S government is investing only $1.1 billion in non-classified AI research, while the private sector is spending billions in many different sectors.
In today’s environment, India only devotes 0.6 percent of GDP to research and development which is well below the 2.74 percent in the U.S. and 2.07 percent in China.
India’s limited investment has slowed innovation and put the country at an economic disadvantage. This is particularly acute with AI because in the last three years, India has attracted less than $100 million in Ai-oriented venture capital financing.
Writer Ananya Bhattacharya reports, “The sector is dominated by American firms like Accenture, Microsoft, and Adobe, which have established their innovation centers in India. Home-grown efforts on the academic, business, and investor fronts are few.”
According to research publications, 70 percent of the AI research in India occurs in non-Indian firms. Research publications report that 62 percent of research in the field comes from Google and IBM employees working in India but in comparison, research shows that there is only one Indian company in the top 10. However, there is growing AI interest, as India starts to invest in additional resources and keeps deploying new AI applications.
This year, the national government has doubled their investment in the innovation program known as Digital India to Rs3, 063 crore or ($477 million) to fund advances in AI, machine learning and 3D printing. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has developed an AI Taskforce to develop policies to encourage innovation in these areas.
As a sign of the increased activity level, AI applications are emerging in a number of different areas that show considerable promise. These areas include finance, healthcare, manufacturing, criminal justice, and agriculture.
The new Brooking report “AI and Data Analytics in India” by Shamika Ravi Director of Research, India and Senior Fellow of Governance Studies Program, Brookings India and Brookings Institution, and Darrell M. West, Vice President Governance Studies and Director for the Center for Technology Innovations at Brookings Institution discusses India’s AI and data analytics in depth. .
Go to https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2018/0517/artificial-intelligence-and-data-analytics-in-india to view the report.