Can India benefit from an immediate AI-technology dividend?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently set out his vision for India’s technology enabled development during one of many post-budget webinars. One of the central themes of Modi’s remarks was the need for India to start making “maximum use of technology” to secure improvements to the standards and “ease of living” of its citizens.

Noting the potential of technology as “a medium to empower the people of the country”, the prime minister’s address emphasized that most ordinary Indians are yet to fully reap the benefits of such innovations. In order for this to change, Modi is pushing for greater use of cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the prosperity and comfort of the population.

A long view on AI

Just last year, the Economic Survey found that India has become the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. Tech startups have especially prospered, attracting around $24.1 billion of investment in the past year alone.

Much of the credit for India’s current strength in the global tech landscape can be attributed to its record of strategic investments and long-term decision-making. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the country’s commitment to specialist education and training. The investments made in these areas have been such that India has spawned the highest number of STEM graduates of any country, with its students accounting for around a third the overall global total in these fields.

When challenges have arisen that threaten the country’s long-term technological advantage, India has equally been proactive in its response. For instance, faced with the highest rate of AI skill emigration of the entire G20, India has responded by encouraging even more long-term investments and partnerships between universities and leading tech companies to train even more workers in AI.

Why put off until tomorrow what you can already enjoy today?

During his webinar address Prime Minister Modi appeared to acknowledge the role long-term investments in education and training have played in making India “familiar with the principles of science”. However, the challenge now is to move towards actively applying AI to practical use across the country.

Indeed, Modi’s remarks intended to reinforce the message that advanced technologies such as AI can no longer be treated as a theoretical exercise or a prototype for the future: they are the here and now. Reaping their benefits will therefore require a shift in India’s posture from long-term planning to searching for immediate opportunities.

One of the sectors that has arguably the most to gain from hastening its implementation of AI-based solutions in India is the public sector, where public infrastructure safety and efficiency in delivering public services can be greatly improved. For example, the country’s ageing rail infrastructure has contributed towards a significant amount of the 13,000 train accidents witnessed in 2020, resulting in around 12,000 fatalities. Similarly, India’s notorious issues with delivering clean water as a public service mean that over 37 million people still suffer from diseases contracted via contaminated water every year.

Despite the large scope for technology-driven improvement in these areas, a recent report by Deloitte finds that AI embeddedness in the India’s public sector is significantly behind that of other industries. Perhaps the reluctance to implement AI in the public sector should come as no surprise. After all, a majority of 52% of Indians expressed feeling concern towards artificial intelligence as a technology in a recent survey. Thus, the government’s mission to bring the benefits of AI to its citizens – and to benefit from the tech dividend – is one that must also win over hearts and minds.

Peeking abroad

The best way to do so is by implementing AI solutions that can be shown to have fast, tangible and positive impact for everyday people. Such a solutions already exist further afield. As India is far from the only country seeking to integrate AI in the public sector, it can import the systems that have already proven their value elsewhere in the world.

When it comes to using AI to improved public infrastructure safety, for instance, the computer vision system developed by NASADQ-listed American company Remark Holdings has shown great promise in the United States. In collaboration with Brightline, a rail operator in Florida and Las Vegas, the system has been used to improve safety around train tracks by monitoring and detecting in real-time intruders, obstacles or anomalies. Remark Holdings is also working on using the same AI-driven solution for other purposes, such as assisting law enforcement in their efforts at road traffic management.

Other initiatives have instead sought to use AI to detect contamination in the water supply. For instance, a small company called BlueConduit uses an AI-trained algorithm to reduce the likelihood of lead poisoning in the water supply by detecting the pipes that need servicing. The system, which was the brainchild of two professors, has now been rolled out effectively to over 50 cities.

Technological pick and mix

Having already shown their promise, these AI-based solutions can therefore clearly create immediate and tangible benefits to every citizen by making public infrastructure safer and more efficient. And there are already some signs that India is becoming increasingly receptive to such opportunities. For instance, the government’s Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari last week unveiled his intention to develop AI systems for traffic monitoring and road accident prevention, with the intent of reducing the high number of roadside accidents that currently claim around 150,000 lives every year in India.

However, relying on home-made initiatives alone is less efficient when it is possible to import systems that have already proven their value elsewhere in the world. By cherry picking the most effective systems from overseas alongside the best creations from domestic producers, India can fast-track its adoption of AI and more quickly bring the benefits invoked by Modi to its citizens – and given the urgent need for improvements, the world’s largest democracy must shift gears soon, or miss out on the technological dividend.

Published on: Thursday, March 17, 2022, 01:05 PM IST