NITI Aayog, the think tank of India has proposed yet another index to rank the states on. This comes after it has already established a few indices for the ranking system of states. Health, education, water composite index and agriculture index are few of the indices established by NITI Aayog in the last few years.
The term coined for this index is the Artificial Intelligence readiness index. Criteria for this index is still undecided. As NITI Aayog is contemplating the factors to be included in the index, it has already planned a proposal for the new government.
The proposal includes ranking the states on their capacity to adopt the AI technology for public service delivery and exploit its innovative potential. It is also meant to identify the challenges faced by different states for adoption of AI and will give state wise suggestions for solving the issues.
In the Union Budget 2018-2019, NITI Aayog were given the responsibility to develop the national programme on AI, so it is only natural that they would push on development and adoption of AI and assess the states’ initiative on AI for the index establishment.
Although it is said that the parameters for the index to rank states on will be finalised in some time, we have a rough idea on what some of the fields could be included. The criteria may include digital skills, innovation capabilities and existing data and management capabilities.
NITI Aayog has suggested that India invest around 7,500 crore for the initial establishment period of three years and to smooth things, assign a special task force to monitor the adoption of AI by the country.
There seems to be a bright future for the country if AI is brought forward and developed more. The estimated growth in India’s GDP is around $957 billion in profits by 2035 and there will be a boost in the annual growth of about 1.3 % points by 2035.
This leads to adoption of AI being a key priority area for the government and the index will definitely help in ruling out plans for future advancements. As a part of this movement the government has already requested all the states to identify the available and potential sectors for AI adoption in their respective areas.
Seeing the world progress ahead in AI and developing new technologies related to Artificial Intelligence daily, this is not a bad step and can prove to be a success like the other indices established by the think tank.
Compiled by Oxford insights and the International Development Research Center (IDRC), in the 2019 Government AI Readiness Index, India ranked 17th with Singapore, United kingdom and Germany leading the list.
