The year of AI in India..
Real world use-cases driven by the govt?
Hey there!
First of all, a happy new year and here is the first newsletter of 2020 from NextBigWhat.
What’s our plan for 2020? Well, we are launching premium newsletters for professionals who are responsible to build, grow and scale businesses/products.
Each day will have a different theme - ensuring we enable you to build different perspectives and access curated wisdom, which is often lost in the noisy web.
This is just the beginning!
India is seeing quite a flurry of activity around implementation of AI based initiatives by state and central governments. Whether these will result in actual meaningful outcomes for citizens remains to be seen, however it is worth highlighting and examining the latest in this regard.
From Telangana declaring 2020 as the ‘year of artificial intelligence’ to 5 DRDO Young Scientist Labs dedicated to AI research being announced by PM Modi, here is a round up on AI/Deeptech updates focused on India.
DRDO Young Scientist Labs Dedicated To AI Research Announced By PM Narendra Modi
In keeping with the AI driven initiatives being announced by state governments, the central government too has found its voice with five DRDO ‘Young Scientist Laboratories’ being announced by Prime Minister Modi in Bengaluru which will focus on AI, quantum and cognitive technologies.
These laboratories are located in five major cities, namely Bengaluru (AI Research), Mumbai (Quantum Technology), Chennai (Cognitive Technology), Kolkata (Asymmetric Technologies) and Hyderabad (Smart Materials).
It’s important to note that announcements and executions are different beasts. Unless we clearly define what we want to achieve, these labs will be as good as several other schemes launched by the govt with very little impact.
Telangana Government declares 2020 as 'year of artificial intelligence'; ties up with tech majors to enable project
Telangana Government has tied up with Intel, Adobe, Nvidia along with Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and IITs of Kharagpur and Hyderabad as part of its initiative of declaring 2020 as 'year of artificial intelligence'. The government has said that it has set the target of attracting and enabling 200 AI innovators and startups, leading to a valuation of $3-4 billion to set up their base in Hyderabad. Nvidia also announced the setting up of a High Performance AI Computing Center (HPAIC) in Telangana.
Central Government to announce new policy on scientific social responsibility soon
Union Science Minister Harsh Vardhan has said that the central government is in the advanced stages of preparing and announcing a new policy on scientific social responsibility considering the latest developments in cyber physical systems, energy storage, quant systems, gene editing, AI and more. Speaking at the 107th Indian Science Congress, he said “At the 2015 ISC, PM Modi used the word ‘Scientific Social Responsibility’. At the moment, we are in the advanced stages of developing a policy on how we can fulfill SSR.”
AI to assist Telangana Police Department in handling crowds
Telangana Police’s intelligence wing has tied up with Gurugram based startup Awiros to implement AI based crowd management solutions which will assist them in handling mega events like Samakka-Saralamma Jatara at Medaram, considered to be one of the biggest tribal fairs in Asia. The solution would entail the usage of CCTV footage to analyse crowd movements and size to assist police with regards to movement of personnel and other decisions in order to prevent stampedes and other dangerous situations.
Via