The government may take an equity stake in projects to build large language models (LLMs) under the Rs 10,000 crore IndiaAI Mission, according to its call for proposals to build artificial intelligence (AI) models in the country.
"Initially, there will be direct financial support for model development, subject to milestone-based disbursements. This financial support can be in the form of a direct grant and/or compute credits for AI Compute. This funding can be in addition to the funds raised by the entity through grants from State Governments, Other Ministries or through other sources," the proposal said.
"Subsequently, IndiaAI may infuse further funding into the entity by take equity through mechanisms that will be finalised through mutual consent and agreement," it added.
The IndiaAI mission has invited proposals from startups, researchers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate on developing advanced foundational AI models trained on Indian datasets.
This initiative aims to create indigenous AI models that meet global standards while addressing India's unique challenges and opportunities. In order to facilitate the functioning of these stakeholders, the Union IT Minister has announced a 40% subsidy to the researchers and startups under ‘Common Compute Facility’.
The government of India has envisioned India’s first AI model to be culturally and contextually relevant, which can address multiple issues existing in a number of sectors and can support creative and scalable use cases with measurable societal and economic impact.
As per the reports, the proposals will be considered on the basis of if the invitee has a good track record in development and deployment in AI research, it should have a multidisciplinary experience, it needs to have prior experience in building models, etc.
The proposal should demonstrate clarity and innovation in its approach to building foundational AI models, outlining a well-defined strategy for dataset sourcing, cleaning, and preparation, with a focus on underrepresented Indian contexts. Additionally, a comprehensive plan for the continuous maintenance, evaluation, and enhancement of the models is essential, ensuring their adaptability to evolving data.
The proposed model needs to demonstrate the potential for widespread impact across various industries and regions while maintaining long-term sustainability through regular updates. The model will be funded in two ways: Initial financial support will be provided for model development, disbursed in a milestone-based manner while in the later stage it will be funded by acquiring equity in the entity.
On January 30, while briefing to the media, Vaishnaw said that the government's goal is to foster innovation, create societal impact at scale, and strengthen India’s position in the global AI ecosystem.
