Govt seeks to empanel AI infra providers for India AI Mission

Ministry of electronics, and information technology (MeitY) has invited AI service providers within the country for empanelment as AI service providers on cloud under the Rs10,372-crore India AI Mission.

Selection of agencies will be done through a transparent and competitive bidding process, probably by early September. The process will ensure realization of the most competitive prices, as per the Request For Empanelment (RFE).

Empaneled agencies will provide high-speed AI computing infrastructure, including graphics processing units (GPUs), to academia, startups, researchers, and government bodies at competitive rates.

India AI Mission proposes to create a cutting-edge, scalable AI computing AI infrastructure with over 10,000 GPU computing capacity, so as to facilitate innovation, creation of data centers and skill development.

Empaneled agencies, selected through a competitive bidding process, will provide access to high-speed computing AI infrastructure, including graphics processing units (GPUs), accelerators, Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), as also storage for academia, startups, researchers, and government bodies, at competitive rates.

Services can be accessed by end users approved by MeitY, Abhishek Singh, additional secretary of the ministry told the media at a press meet.

India AI, which is a public-private partnership, will function as an IBD under the Digital India Corporation, he added.

Empanelment of service providers will initially be for 36 months, which will be extended based on requirements and future potential. MeitY has made it clear that the RFE is not a procurement agreement.

Eligible and interested bidders can submit bids till 6 September.