“We are in the age of DeepSeek,” said Krishnan, referring to the frugally built open-source artificial intelligence model from China that took the tech world by storm in January. He said a lot of work in AI and innovation would be on building on existing models and efforts to take things forward rather than greenfield research.
“It’s an interesting balance between… doing the whole thing ourselves as against making sure that we collaborate with the right partners to make sure that we are able to leapfrog,” the official said.
He was speaking at TecVerse, an exhibition of work being done by Meity’s R&D arms Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology and Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research.
A memorandum of understanding between software exporter Tata Consultancy Services and C-DAC was announced at the event. The two will partner on an Indian sovereign cloud platform.
The ministry is looking to jointly fund a research centre on 2D materials with the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, Krishnan said.
Initiatives by other arms of the government, such as defence and pharmaceuticals, are also tapping into various R&D infrastructure and resources funded by Meity, he added.
Meity on Thursday made a presentation before the parliamentary standing committee on communications and information technology on the impact of the emergence of AI and related issues. Ministries of defence, home affairs and power also made presentations on the topic.