Budget'18: Niti Aayog to spearhead National Programme on Artificial Intelligence - CIOL

Startup industry doesn't have much to take away from Budget 2018 barring two major announcements. Firstly, Finance minister, Arun Jailtey said that the government would invest in research and development in areas such as robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. To that end, Amitabh Kant-led Niti Aayog will establish a National Programme to direct efforts in the area of Artificial Intelligence towards national development. "Technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and others are the technologies of the future and NITI Aayog will establish a national programme to conduct research and development in these areas," Jaitley said in his budget speech. Appreciating the move, Keshab Panda, CEO & MD, L&T Technology Services said, "We welcome the government's thrust on encouraging R&D pursuits in the areas of AI, machine learning, robotics and edge analytics. This move will further leapfrog the innovations in this space that is significantly driven by Indian companies and will place the country at the centre of global digital transformation focus."