Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the government has taken many effective steps with regards to the development and efficient usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science and R&D for Science & Technology.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Department of Science & Technology (DST) is implementing a National Mission-Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (NMICPS), with a budget outlay of Rs. 3,660.00 crore for a period of 5 years.

As part of the Mission implementation, 25 Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs) have been established in reputed institutes across the country in advanced technologies. The Mission aims at development of technology platforms to carry out R&D, translational research, product development, incubating & supporting start-ups and as well as commercialization.

The Mission is being implemented with all the TIHs undertaking activities under the following four major categories i.e., 1. Technology Development, 2. Human Resource Development 3. Entrepreneurship Development 4. International Collaboration. The following TIHs have been assigned Technology Verticals in the areas of AI and Data Science:

Further, DST has successful schemes in operation to strengthen and develop the basic R&D infrastructure for science and technology in universities and other institutes of higher education. The various programmes of DST namely Fund for Improvement of S&T infrastructures in Universities and Higher Educational Institutions (FIST), Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE), Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF), Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institute (SATHI) work towards the development and efficient usage of AI, Data Science, and R&D.

Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is supporting projects for application of ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI)’. Projects are also being supported under revamped Biotechnology Information System Network (BTISNet) for establishment of Bioinformatics and Computational Centres involving data driven research, applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning, high-throughput data related informatics etc, in various sectors of life sciences.

DBT is also implementing a programme “MANAV: Human Atlas Initiative” to construct a comprehensive and integrated human map by assimilating all the known macro-level and micro-level information from scientific literature and public databases.

DST and National Science Foundation (NSF), USA have jointly collaborated to invite proposals for collaborative research on Critical and Emerging Technologies like Data Analytics and Predictive Technologies.

Under the Entrepreneurship Development and Human Resource Development components of the TIHs established under NM-ICPS, various national and international level grand challenges, hackathons, workshops, etc. are conducted time-to-time to attract the Scientific community to develop and commercialize their research work.

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector Enterprise, set up by DBT, has also taken many effective steps for development and efficient usage of AI, Data Science and R&D for Science & Technology. The recent call under Grand Challenges India (GCI) was launched on 3rd July, 2022 for inviting applications to provide Innovative Data Analytics solutions, so as to improve maternal and child health in Indian context.

BIRAC, in collaboration with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), GCI and other partners have announced a special Call for proposals under Amrit Grand Challenge in Telemedicine, Digital Healthtech, mHealth using Big Data, Blockchain, AI/ Machine Learning (ML), and other technologies to strengthen the Healthcare ecosystem in India. BIRAC’s BioNEST incubators provide incubation and mentoring support to startups & entrepreneurs working in the area of AI & Data Science.

MieTY & NASSCOM have jointly initiated a programme titled FutureSkills PRIME – a B2C framework for re-skilling/upskilling of IT professionals in 10 Emerging areas including Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

Source-PIB