Building AI for India? Or Bharat?

When Bill Gates visited India this year, he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and wished to know what AI meant for the country. Modi quipped that in many Indian states, a newborn’s first word is “aai”, meaning mother—but also, fittingly, AI. He said that since India is getting so technologically advanced, everyone now knows about AI.

However, AI progress in India has a dual edge—one that speaks of pushing the boundaries of innovation for the urban world (building for India), and the other that deeply understands and uplifts the aspirations of rural communities (building for Bharat).

“So, Are You Building ‘AI for India’ or ‘AI for Bharat’?”

These two worlds have different realities, but their aspirations are the same—better opportunities through technology. But what exactly is the difference?

At Cypher 2024, India’s biggest AI conference, Wadhwani AI CEO Shekar Sivasubramanian said that designing AI for both these users requires vastly different approaches. When rolling out software for farmers or daily wage earners, we must consider that they may be using the most expensive piece of equipment they’ve ever owned, and the software must be intuitive and simple to use, he said. 

“When we deployed AI solutions in rural India, we realised that the most important factor was showing people that we cared about them, and that was more valuable than any complex algorithm,” he added.         

AI for India is Tough

A ‘Jio moment’ in AI was long overdue, which Mukesh Ambani finally delivered at Reliance Industries’ 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM), unveiling a series of AI initiatives. Some of the major highlights included the introduction of Jio Brain, Jio AI-Cloud, Jio Phone Call AI, and the vision for a national AI infrastructure. 

Companies like Tata, Reliance, and Adani Group are all planning several initiatives to build AI in India.

Meanwhile, Ola’s Krutrim is the first Indian AI startup to hit a billion-dollar valuation, just a month following the launch of its LLM. The company, whose name itself means “artificial” in Sanskrit, has ambitious plans, like developing data centres, servers, and supercomputers for the AI ecosystem. 

Speaking of innovation, Bengaluru-based Vahan.ai is using AI to tackle hiring issues for blue-collar workers in India. Meanwhile, to better understand the plight of gig workers, last week, Zomato chief Deepinder Goyal and his wife Grecia Munoz took to the streets of Gurugram, taking upon themselves the task of delivering orders.

Vahan.ai has successfully placed over 500,000 workers across more than 480 cities. Among its prominent clients are industry leaders such as Zomato, Swiggy, Flipkart, Zepto, Blinkit, Amazon, Rapido, and Uber ever since it started in 2016. 

Read the full interview here.

AI for Bharat is Tougher

In urban India, AI powers sophisticated services that seamlessly integrate into daily life. Some of the companies pioneering this revolution are Sarvam AI, TWO, SML, G42, and others. 

But in rural Bharat, AI must be something more—it must be simple, intuitive, and empathetic. It’s not just about the technology, but about showing people that it cares for them. The likes of Microsoft-incubated Karya, Nextwealth, Kissan AI, along with initiatives such as AI4Bharat are bringing it to them. 

Similarly, Tech Mahindra Bharat Markup Language (BHAML) allows developers in rural India to code in their native language, including Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, and more, for programming languages like Java, CSS, and HTML.

Several startups are also coming into the scene to build AI for Bharat. Some of them include Hesa, Fasal, and CropIn, which are focusing on rural India development and enabling digital transformation with social and digital approaches.        

For the Big Tech, India is the Same as Bharat

As Modi once said, AI could stand for “American Indians”, highlighting the powerful blend of innovation and talent from both sides of the globe.

But when it comes to the Western perspective of India, not much has changed over the years. For them, much like in the Hollywood movies, India is an underdeveloped colourful country. 

Nevertheless, the big-tech’s contributions toward building AI for Bharat has been immense. Microsoft and Google, for instance, are making significant contributions to rural development through AI. Microsoft’s Jugalbandi chatbot uses generative AI to help villagers access government services in multiple languages, enhancing digital literacy.         

Similarly, Google’s AI Samarth initiative aims to educate five million students, parents, and teachers over the next four years, equipping them with AI literacy. 

Meta’s contribution to the open source AI ecosystem, apart from Meta AI on WhatsApp, has also tremendously helped in AI innovation and adoption within India and Bharat.

The list goes on… but so far, there seems to be no clear metric to measure the pace of AI adoption in India and Bharat. However, one thing is clear: with its large population and unique needs, rural India is a prime landscape for startups ready to grow. For businesses aiming to scale, the real opportunity lies in Bharat, where any innovation can directly transform millions of lives. 

AI Bytes 

• Abu Dhabi-based AI and cloud computing company, G42, has announced the acquisition of CPX, a homegrown cybersecurity leader known for delivering digital-first solutions and services.
• E2E Networks has announced its partnership with People+ai, an initiative by the EkStep Foundation, to address the growing demand for cloud GPU and compute power in India. This collaboration will strengthen India’s compute ecosystem by making advanced and customisable cloud resources more accessible to a wider audience.
• Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield were awarded the Nobel Prize for physics by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for pioneering advancements that form the basis of today’s ML world.
• At the 10th edition of the Google for India event, Rocket Learning, the edtech platform, announced that it is collaborating with Google to launch a new Fellowship called Saheli, an AI-powered study companion delivered as a web application.