India joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as a founding member to support the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI. GPAI is an international and multi-stakeholder initiative to guide the responsible development and use of AI, grounded in human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation, and economic growth. With this, India has joined the league of leading economies including the US, the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore to launch the global partnership.

This is a first initiative of its kind to evolve better understanding of the challenges and opportunities around AI using the experience and diversity of participating countries, an official statement said. To achieve this goal, the initiative will look to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities, it said.

India launched its first national Artificial Intelligence Portal called www.ai.gov.in. AI Portal has been jointly developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) and IT Industry. National e-Governance Division of MEITY and NASSCOM from the IT industry will jointly run this portal. This portal shall work as a one-stop digital platform for AI-related developments in India, sharing of resources such as articles, start-ups, investment funds in AI, resources, companies and educational institutions related to AI in India. The portal will also share documents, case studies, research reports etc.

The government has started inter-departmental and industry consultations to revamp the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 to stay on top of the various technological advances in the social media, e-commerce, cybercrime and digital payments space. MEITY has reached out to stakeholder ministries, including the Ministry of Home Affairs and Department of Telecom for their inputs. Following MeitY’s ask, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has also written to industry bodies for feedback.

The state-owned telecom equipment maker ITI Limited is setting up an electronic manufacturing cluster (EMC) under MEITY modified scheme in Bengaluru and has sought approval from the administrative ministry for a long-term lease. The state-run company has sought the DoT approval for a long-term lease following the willingness by nearly 50 manufacturers or original equipment makers worldwide. The government's modified scheme, for the first time has allowed public-run companies to set up manufacturing clusters under the scheme and avail prevalent benefits including financial assistance.

• Scheme for Promotion of manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS). Read more
• Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing. Read more
• Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme and guidelines to implement (guidelines) Read more