New Delhi: The artificial intelligence roadmaps that Union ministries were asked to prepare after this year’s India AI Impact Summit have moved into the assessment stage, with two technical bodies under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) now examining proposals for feasibility, ThePrint has learnt.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC), which maintains the government’s IT infrastructure, and the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) received submissions from ministries, and were asked to check their viability and offer advice on how to take them forward, according to senior MeitY officials, who did not wish to be named.Of the 90 proposals routed to it, NIC has cleared 47 across ministries, they said. NeGD, separately, has received around 700 assessments and case studies from ministries as part of the same exercise.
The vetting follows a directive issued during the AI summit, held in New Delhi from 16 to 20 February. Cabinet Secretary T.V. Somanathan wrote to secretaries, asking them to detail how AI is currently used in their ministries, identify short-term pilots for quick rollout, and lay out long-term plans to embed the technology in service delivery and administration. Ministries were given a March deadline to submit the roadmaps.One proposal under review has come from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which is examining its Parivesh portal—used for environment, forest and wildlife clearances—for AI integration to speed up approvals, a source said. NeGD has held several rounds of consultations with the ministry on the proposal.The Union Public Service Commission has also submitted proposals, including for facial recognition and other tools, sources said.
