India outlines five-layer AI strategy at global summit
India's Communications and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw presented a five-layer artificial intelligence framework Thursday at the AI-India Impact Summit, an event attended by delegates from 118 countries and welcomed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The strategy prioritizes practical applications across healthcare, agriculture, education and finance. It reflects the government's focus on making technology benefits accessible to the broader population.
The five layers
- Application layer: Real-world use cases in priority sectors
- Model layer: Emphasis on sovereignty and smaller, specialized models that reduce costs
- Compute infrastructure: Processing power and hardware
- Broader infrastructure: Supporting systems and platforms
- Energy: Power generation, with over 50 percent of India's installed capacity now from renewable sources
Vaishnaw said the government treats compute as a public good. It has created a shared platform through public-private partnership that provides 38,000 GPUs to startups, academia and researchers, with plans to add 20,000 more.
Data centers and investment
The government aims to attract global data processing to India and expects significant data center investments in coming months, according to Vaishnaw's remarks at the summit.
The framework reflects India's position as the first Global South nation to host a major international AI summit. It connects AI development directly to social and economic outcomes rather than treating the technology as separate from broader development goals.
For PR and communications professionals working with government or technology organizations, understanding this strategic framework is essential. Learn more about AI for PR & Communications or explore AI for Executives & Strategy to better communicate organizational AI initiatives.
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