The Union government has launched AI Kosha, a groundbreaking platform to support Indian researchers, entrepreneurs and startups. This platform provides essential datasets, computing power and tools to help develop advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. AI Kosha is a key part of the IndiaAI Mission, which aims to boost India's AI ecosystem by encouraging innovation and promoting AI-based solutions.

AI Kosha is a collection of non-personal datasets designed to support the development of AI models and applications. It initially offers 316 datasets, primarily aimed at improving and testing language translation tools for Indian languages. These datasets play a crucial role in advancing AI-driven language technology, making digital communication more inclusive and accessible. In addition to translation, the platform offers datasets from several government programs, including Telangana's Open Statistics Initiative, which contains information from the 2011 Census, health records, satellite images, weather reports and pollution statistics. AI Kosha aims to provide developers with rich, locally sourced data—which is crucial for training AI models that are suited to Indian requirements—by combining these resources.

AI Kosha is an essential part of the IndiaAI Datasets Platform, which is one of the seven key areas of the IndiaAI Mission. This mission, backed by a budget of ₹10,370 crore, is the government's major initiative to promote AI research and its use in different sectors. As part of this effort, the Compute Capacity pillar was recently launched, allowing startups and academic institutions to share access to powerful Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) needed for training AI models. Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, spoke about the expansion of GPU resources during the launch. He announced that the government has increased the number of GPUs for shared access from 10,000, as announced earlier this year, to 14,000. He also mentioned that the GPU infrastructure will continue to grow every quarter to meet the increasing needs of AI researchers and developers.

The government is also working to develop a basic AI model that is locally produced in addition to AI Kosha. This endeavour has gained momentum in response to worldwide advancements in artificial intelligence, particularly the appearance of affordable basic models from rival nations. Through the development of domestic technology skills, the project seeks to establish India as a global leader in AI. The Indian government strongly supports open data to drive innovation. The Open Governance Data (OGD) platform (data.gov.in) already offers over 12,000 datasets from various government agencies. Following this approach, AI Kosha aims to improve access to well-organized data, helping startups, researchers, and policymakers create AI solutions that address the country's social and economic needs. 

India is making great progress toward creating a strong AI ecosystem with the introduction of AI Kosha and the growth of its computer capacity. The program seeks to close current gaps in AI research and application by guaranteeing access to crucial datasets and computational resources, opening the door for India to become a worldwide centre for AI innovation.