India AI Mission 2.0 to offer AI suite for MSMEs; Vaishnaw calls it 'UPI of AI'

New Delhi: The next phase of the India AI Mission will bring a bouquet of Artificial Intelligence solutions for MSMEs and users in healthcare and education space, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday, likening it to the "UPI of AI".

The flagship India AI Mission is building out the country's own Artificial Intelligence ecosystem from computing to talent and real-world use cases, and Vaishnaw recently promised a "much larger-scale" second edition of the India AI Mission, which he said is in-the-works.

On Tuesday, the minister said that the next phase of the India AI Mission will have a lot to offer to the country's MSMEs.

"We will be creating a bouquet of solutions which are trusted solutions, which have been tested on security, on all possible parameters, then we will present those solutions (just) like UPI, where the bouquet of solutions is available to the world for using it and building on top of it," he said terming it as "AI kaa UPI" or UPI of AI.

The bouquet will have series of solutions that MSMEs can use to enhance productivity and efficiency.

The minister said that doctors in rural areas will be able to leverage this bouquet of AI solutions to deliver better healthcare services, while teachers would be able to harness them to enhance the quality of education.

"We will provide it in India AI Mission 2.0, through a UPI-type platform," Vaishnaw said.

Venture capitalists have committed USD 17 billion to start-ups

Meanwhile, Vaishnaw said that venture capitalists have committed USD 17 billion to Indian start-ups.

During an award ceremony of the AI Impact summit, Vaishnaw said the ongoing AI summit has now become the largest summit globally.

"I want to share two things with you. This AI summit is now the world's largest AI summit, and the investments that are coming to India, in the infra layer, USD 200 billion and for startups like you, USD 17 billion committed by venture capital," he said.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Jitin Prasad was also there.

Earlier in the day, the minister had said that investors are also bullish on India and they have finalised investment of over Rs 200 billion which will materialise over a period of next 1-2 years.