Digital India: IT ministry set up four committees to encourage AI research

New Delhi: With its allocation for the Digital India programme almost doubled in the Union Budget 2018, the IT ministry plans to graduate to the second phase of its roll out with emphasis on promotion of artificial intelligence (AI) and electronic manufacturing. The ministry has set up four committees to encourage research related to AI which will be headed by directors of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Nasscom and eminent researchers, minister of electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday. "These committees will research and work on development of citizen-centric use cases; data platform; skilling, re-skilling, research and development; and legal regulatory, ethical and cyber-security," said Prasad. According to him, a high-level meeting with around 50 participants including 5-6 directors of IITs, Nasscom and private entities was organized to lay out the road map to promote AI in the country. The IT ministry will be coordinating with NITI Aayog on this, he added.