Year End Review 2024 of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology Part-1

In 2024, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) led key initiatives to advance India’s digital growth, focusing on AI, cybersecurity, and skill development. These efforts aim to make technology more accessible, boost innovation, and strengthen India’s position on the global tech stage.

Semiconductor manufacturing under Semicon India Programme

Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL)’s proposal for setting up a Semiconductor Fab facility in India with an investment of ₹91,526 Crore was approved in February 2024. The fab facility will be set up in a technology partnership with PSMC, Taiwan. PSMC is an established semiconductor company having 6 semiconductor foundries in Taiwan. The production capacity of the project would be around 50,000 wafer starts per month (WSPM).

Tata Electronics Private Limited (TEPL)’s proposal for setting up of OSAT facility in India with an investment of ₹27,120 Crore was approved in February 2024. The facility will use indigenous semiconductor packaging technologies with a production capacity of 48 million per day.

CG Power and Industrial Solutions Limited’s proposal for setting up an OSAT facility in India with an investment of ₹7,584 Crore was also approved in February 2024. The facility will be set up as a joint venture partnership with Renesas Electronics America Inc., USA, and STARS Microelectronic, Thailand. The Technology would be provided for this facility by Renesas Electronics Corporation, Japan and STARS Microelectronic, Thailand. The production capacity would be around 15.07 million Units per day.

Kaynes Technology India Limited (KTIL) proposal for setting up of Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) facility at Sanand, Gujarat for Wire bond Interconnect, Substrate Based Packages was approved in September, 2024. The Technology would be provided by ISO Technology Sdn. Bhd. and Aptos Technology Inc. This facility will be set up with an investment of ₹3,307 Crore. The facility will have the capacity to produce more than 6.33 million chips per day.

IndiaAI Mission

Design, Development, and Deployment of National AI Portal (INDIAai)

INDIAai is a joint venture by MeitY, NeGD and NASSCOM that has been set up to prepare the nation for an AI future. This has been implemented as a one stop online portal for AI related developments in India, sharing of resources, details of start-ups, investment funds in AI, companies and educational institutions related to AI in India, etc.

The portal currently has the following major sections – news, articles, case studies, research reports, listing of startups, listing of investment funds, colleges, companies, countries, people, videos, datasets, courses, and initiatives of states and central ministries.

As on date, there are 2,806 national and international articles, 1,175 news, 334 videos, 164 research reports, 472 startups, 99 case studies, and 184 government initiatives listed on the National AI Portal.

POC for AI Research Analytics and Knowledge Dissemination Platform (AIRAWAT)

The Government has initiated a project AIRAWAT for providing a common compute platform for AI research and knowledge assimilation. This AI computing infrastructure will be used by all Technology Innovation Hubs, research labs, scientific community, industry, start-ups and institutions under the National Knowledge Network. The Proof of Concept (PoC) for AIRAWAT will be developed with 200 petaflops mixed precision AI machine which will be scalable to a peak compute of 790 AI petaflops.

The AIRAWAT has secured 75th position in Top 500 Global Supercomputing List declared at International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023), Germany putting India on top of AI Supercomputing nations worldwide.

Formation of Inter-Ministerial Committee for Development of Robotics Ecosystem in the country

MeitY has constituted an inter-ministerial committee with secretaries from Department of Telecom (DoT), Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and NITI Aayog as members and Secretary, MeitY as the convener.

The committee shall be studying the best practices on the role of government in supporting their domestic robotics industry & suggest a way forward to foster an end-to-end ecosystem centred on robotics including research, design, manufacturing, prototyping and utilization in manufacturing. The document has been put up for public consultation.

National Program on Artificial Intelligence

IndiaAI program is envisioned as an umbrella programme by MeitY for leveraging transformative technologies to foster inclusion, innovation, and adoption for social impact. Pillars of IndiaAI include Data for AI, Skilling, AI Ethics and Governance, Compute, AI Research and Development, National Centre for AI, among others.

To actualize this vision of IndiaAI, MeitY has undertaken the implementation of the “National Program on Artificial Intelligence” with the objective of establishing a comprehensive programme for leveraging transformative technologies to foster inclusion, innovation and adoption for social impact. It encompasses four broad pillars of the AI ecosystem, including Skilling in AI, Responsible AI, Data Management Office and the National Centre on AI.

IndiaAI Report

MeitY envisions the India AI programme as a mission-centric approach for leveraging transformative technologies to boost inclusion, innovation, and adoption for social impact. Pillars of IndiaAI include AI in Governance, AI IP & Innovation, AI Compute & Systems, Data for AI, Skilling in AI, and AI Ethics & Governance. As part of building ‘AI in India and AI for India’, MeitY has formed seven expert groups to collaboratively brainstorm on the vision, objectives, outcomes, and design for each of India’s AI pillars.

The report comprehensively presents the objectives of the pillars of IndiaAI and recommends the next action items involved in harnessing the potential of AI for social development and achieving the goal of ‘AI for ALL’.

Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI)

As one of the largest Global South economies leading the AI race, India nominated itself for the position of incoming council chair of GPAI. India received more than two-thirds of first-preference votes and was therefore elected as the Incoming Council Chair in November 2022. India will serve as the Incoming Chair in 2023, then subsequently Lead Chair in 2024, and Outgoing Chair in 2025.

The 6th meeting of the GPAI Ministerial Council was held on 3rd July 2024 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi in a hybrid mode.
The 2024 GPAI New Delhi meeting and the consensus reached on the future of GPAI underscores India’s leadership in the global AI discourse, cementing its pivotal role in steering the ethical and inclusive development of AI. This will pave the way for the renewed integrated partnership to achieve its objectives of harnessing the potential of AI for Good and for All. (https://gpai.ai/)