Unlocking India’s Potential with AI

Source details

India is positioned to become the world’s most extensive user of AI by the end of this decade, driven by pressing needs, readiness in digital infrastructure, and active adoption by government and the private sector.
The authors’ framing: “India needs it, India is ready for it, and India will do it.”

Key findings:
- Population: 1.4 billion.
- Average age in India: 28; average age in Europe: 44.
- India recognizes 19,500 dialects spoken by at least 10,000 people.
- Two Indians selected at random have a 36 percent chance of speaking a common language.
- Official literacy rate: near 77 percent.
- Literacy implication: roughly 1 in 4 people can’t read or write.
Implications:
- Large, young, and diverse population creates unique language and access challenges across health care, education, agriculture, and social protection.
- Distribution and last-mile access, not lack of solutions, are the primary barriers for many welfare programs.
- AI—especially voice-enabled natural language interfaces—can help users access services directly and bridge access gaps.

Key statistics and infrastructure:
- Mobile broadband users: more than 790 million.
- Aadhaar: a 12-digit unique identity number with an option for users to authenticate themselves digitally.
- Unified Payments Interface (UPI):
- Handles more than 10 billion transactions a month.
- Described as the largest real-time payment system in the world.
- Handles about 60 percent of real-time payment transactions worldwide.
- Namma Yatri (ride-hailing network in Bangalore):
- Launched in November 2022.
- App has facilitated close to 90,000 rides a day.
Governance and trust features:
- Data-sharing models: Account Aggregator framework keeps data under citizens' control.
- Open networks and digital public infrastructure enable rapid, low-cost innovation and large-scale data generation for AI.

Government and public-sector pilots:
- PM-Kisan chatbot:
- Launched in September 2023 (government collaboration with EkStep foundation).
- Works with PM-Kisan, India’s direct benefit transfer program for farmers (initiated in 2019).
- On launch day more than 500,000 users chatted with the bot.
- Provides voice-based eligibility checks, application status, and payment information; features released slowly for safe, risk-managed rollout.
Private sector and startup ecosystem:
- IT exports: nearly $250 billion a year.
- Developer base: next to those from the US, the largest number of developers on GitHub are from India.
- Start-ups leverage digital public infrastructure to build AI solutions that address local problems; the relationship between start-ups and public data is cyclical and reinforcing.
Education and social services:
- AI can help students learn in native languages and learn English.
- AI can relieve teachers of administrative tasks, enabling more meaningful human interaction and deeper learning.

Focus on problems, not technology:
- Adopt a People+AI approach: prioritize solving concrete problems people face where existing technology falls short.
Scale with safety and risk management:
- Roll out features gradually and manage risks in public-facing AI deployments (example: PM-Kisan chatbot phased feature release).
Leverage digital public infrastructure:
- Build AI-first systems on top of Aadhaar, UPI, Account Aggregator frameworks, and open networks to enable inclusive, trusted, and interoperable services.
Target areas with high social payoff:
- Education, social protection, health care, agriculture, and sustainability are highlighted as priority domains where AI can address distributional and access challenges.

Unlocking India’s Potential with AI — NANDAN NILEKANI and TANUJ BHOJWANI, F&D Magazine, December 2023.

F&D Point of View: Unlocking India’s Potential with AI
- F&D Point of View: Unlocking India’s Potential with AI (Markdown version)
- F&D Point of View: Unlocking India’s Potential with AI (PDF)