The Union Cabinet has approved India’s ambitious AI Mission 2.0, allocating a massive Rs 25,000 crore budget over the next five years. The mission aims to establish India as a global leader in artificial intelligence development and deployment.
Key highlights include the establishment of 50 AI Centres of Excellence across major cities, a dedicated AI research fund for universities, and partnerships with leading tech companies for skill development. The mission will focus on developing indigenous AI models for healthcare, agriculture, education, and governance.
Prime Minister stated that this initiative will create over 1 million AI-related jobs by 2030 and position India as the world’s AI talent hub. The plan includes building sovereign AI compute infrastructure with 10,000 GPU clusters across government data centers.
Industry leaders have welcomed the move, with NASSCOM calling it a ‘watershed moment’ for India’s technology ecosystem. The initiative also includes provisions for responsible AI governance and data privacy frameworks.