Emerging Scope of AI in India

The leaders across the world have realized the potential of AI. “The thing that really excites me today is building a new AI-powered society, said Andrew Ng. All the countries including US, Canada, China, Japan, India and many more have already established AI labs and put their scientists and researchers to work in this field.

Artificial intelligence holds the power to revolutionize every sector as and when needed. From agriculture to medicine and defense, it has the potential to transform them all.

State of Adoption in India

IT and ITeS services in India account for 7.7% of India’s GDP (2016). To further increase this, the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog announced an exhaustive plan along with a roadmap to focus on research in the AI field. This programme, under the slogan of “AI-for-All in India”, shows how seriously the Government is trying to integrate AI with every aspect of the country and its citizens.
It is estimated that the Indian economy will grow at an annual rate of 1.3 percent with the help of this sector.

The suite of AI technologies is like a catalyst to the socio-economic development of India. Many states of the country have widely accepted this technology but still, there are misconceptions surrounding it.
It was believed that Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Machine Learning leads to loss of human jobs, hence India hasn’t rooted for a long-term plan of implementation of AI.
Recent developments have shown the people in this field received tremendous support from the government and led to major employment drives in the AI industry and hence, more people are excited to be a part of it.

Strengths and Opportunities for India in Artificial Intelligence

India is the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world today with Bangalore being at the top of its list. Most of these startups have stepped into the field of AI and are developing products in numerous domains including healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, finance, water management, Ayurveda, marine resources, safety, retail industry and even women empowerment.

In the health and wellness industry, the pilot project of India is to augment the productivity of pathologists and radiologists and reach the rural areas of the country. Under the projects like ‘The Digital Pathology’ and ‘Imaging Biobank’, AI models are being designed to diagnose and detect Diabetic Retinopathy and Cardiac risk at an early stage.
An Indian start-up ‘Forus Health’ has developed a device ‘3Nethra’ for screening common eye problems as well as complicated ones like diabetic retinopathy with the adoption of AI.

As AI in healthcare is evolving, the Indian government is addressing the nation’s healthcare challenges and plans to help district hospitals to effectively cater to non-communicable long term diseases. It has also been working to transform more than a lakh ‘Heath and Wellness Centers’ and equip them with the best machinery using advanced technologies such as AI.
Another Indian start-up Automaton AI has been working on Custom AI applications in Banking, Healthcare and Gaming Industry to support and elevate Indian companies in those industries along with creating employment in the Data Labeling industry.

Such initiatives would help the doctors diagnose the diseases in early stages and provide medications accordingly to prevent the further advancement of the disease. This will not only bring down healthcare costs but also increase the chances of recovery.

Agriculture accounts for 16% of the Indian GDP and employs 50% of the total population of India. Thus, advancements in this field have been of pivotal importance to the government. To increase the farm yields and production levels, farmers are being given real-time advisory based on the weather conditions, satellite imagery and other factors that are being diagnosed using artificial intelligence.

Numerous AI-based Indian start-ups such as AgTechs, Intello Labs, Aibono etc are contributing to the agricultural sector. Intello labs monitor crops and predict farm yields with the help of image-recognition software. Aibono uses agri-data science to stabilize crop yields. The real-time monitoring of crops is also made possible to the farmers with the help of drones provided by the startup Trithi Robotics.
Thus, the adoption of AI in the agricultural sector has resulted in better yields, prevented crop damage with the help of regular monitoring and provided farmers with advanced solutions to their problems.

The education sector is one of the most important sectors responsible for the growth of the nation. The central and state governments have adopted effective learning tools designed for customized learning and interactive tutoring systems using AI.
AI-based systems are also being developed to generate customized professional courses for the fulfillment of the gaps in the field of education.
Sentiligent Academy is one of those notions to create an effective AI workforce in India with Hands-on training and industry-led Bootcamps.

Many opportunities in the field of AI still lie ahead of India. Various startups and established industries are working on various projects such as smart cities, smart homes, AI-driven service delivery, crowd management, prevention of cyberattacks, intelligent safety systems and many more to provide ample opportunities for the growth of the country and its citizens.

‘National AI Marketplace (NAIM)’ and ‘Data Marketplace’ are the two most pivotal areas that will take India to the forefront in the race of AI. Although initial efforts are already made, yet the full pathway is to be planned. As soon as these initiatives take good shape, India will enter the list of AI superpowers!

Challenges-

Developments in the field of AI are not easy. Some of the challenges faced by India for the full adoption of this technology are-

Lack of skilled AI workforce

There is a huge gap in industry requirement and Indian education system which results into the lack of skilled AI workforce. Hands-on training and industry experience are rarely taught in the Indian education system.

Lack of AI ecosystems

The country lacks proper ecosystems that need to be enabled for the collection of the data and its usage.

Insufficient availability of manpower

The research sector still requires experts and beginners that are all ready to take up this field. Skilling opportunities are less here.

Unclear privacy and ethical regulations

Many businesses are concerned about the data breach and protecting their privacy as the ethical regulations in the field still remain unclear.

Belief and Adoption

AI is still not being fully accepted by various companies as well as the people of the country due to its high cost, low awareness, requirements of highly skilled experts and other factors such as people’s beliefs. In a country where human relations are preferred, the use of robots and drones is not widely appreciated.

Many engineers and researchers are stepping into the field of data science and AI seeing its huge potential. Technical training in AI in India is affordable and easily accessible, thereby giving ample opportunities to young entrepreneurs and aspiring AI professionals. The future of the country holds numerous new AI ventures for the overall development of its citizens.

India is already a powerhouse in the field of IT, and thus has incredible potential to become one of the superpowers in the field of Artificial intelligence.

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