The Odisha government has begun the process to formulate an independent artificial intelligence (AI) policy to align its strategy with the objectives of India AI Mission.
Principal Secretary of Electronics and IT Department Vishal Kumar Dev said, “We have great ambitions in this field. We want to contribute to augmenting India’s compute capacity and develop indigenous foundational models, datasets, and AI startups.”
Speaking at a brainstorming workshop on ‘AI strategy for Odisha’ here on Saturday, Dev said, the state will soon have a robust AI ecosystem in collaboration with academia, industry, and the government.
As an emerging technological domain, AI is transforming all sectors. The Union government has made AI a national priority and allocated more than Rs 10,000 crore under the India AI Mission. The mission is aimed at fostering research, innovation, and the adoption of AI technologies across industries.
With dedicated initiatives, the state government is contemplating to fulfil the national vision and ensure that both India and Odisha become global leaders in AI development and deployment, Dev said.
Development commissioner Anu Garg said Odisha is experiencing accelerated growth across all sectors and increasing adoption of AI in the state will further augment the process. “However, there is a need to ensure that AI adoption also benefits the marginalised groups and is based on the principles of equity. We are in discussion with experts to learn about the global best practices in AI and adopt and scale those practices in Odisha,” she said.
The workshop was organised by the Electronics and IT department and attended by senior representatives from the government, academia, industry, and international organisations.
Discussions on AI adoption, digital infrastructure requirements such as local compute capacity for AI ecosystem development, AI use cases in sectors like healthcare, agriculture, education, and disaster management, workforce development for AI, ethical and regulatory frameworks and finances for AI start-ups were held.
Representatives from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, International Innovation Corps, University of California-Berkeley, Samagra, Apurva.ai, People+AI, and Wadhwani Foundation made detailed presentations.
Online Source:
New Indian Express
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