Presenting the interim budget last February, the then finance minister Piyush Goyal waxed eloquent of India’s digital-driven future and how emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence and machine learning, could boost it. Goyal revealed the government had identified nine priority areas for the development of AI and hinted soon there would be brisk policy action that could lead to an explosion of sorts in the Indian AI sector. In fact, the previous Budgets presented by Goyal’s predecessor Arun Jaitley too had interesting though rhetorical announcements on AI.

But it is a fact that India’s approach to the development of AI, a technological force that according to a report from Accenture could add over $900 billion to the country’s economy by 2030, lacks a sense of urgency. Policy needs to catch up with global best practices. More than 200 start-ups and several scientists are working in the domain, but there is hardly any effort to coordinate these efforts under a national umbrella.

The National Artificial Intelligence Portal is still a work in progress. There are no policies or regulatory clarity on a lot of areas related to the development and commercialisation of AI in India. Start-ups working on AI would need a lot more than fine prose and speech from ministers and officials to develop solutions for the greater common good. And making this happen is important considering that almost all business verticals — from finance, healthcare, hospitality to retail — will be impacted by AI in a matter of 2-5 years. A report suggests more than 50 per cent of retail firms in India will be operating on AI by 2020. Nearly a third of the healthcare solutions, and over a half of educational products, are going to be powered by AI. The upcoming Budget must introduce pragmatic measures to help AI spread and progress in India.

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