VISAKHAPATNAM: The Union Budget 2023-24 has given a big boost to Information Technology industry, said the IT Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITAAP). ITAAP president Kosaraju Sreedhar said the proposal to set up three centres of excellence for AI is a significant step in India’s endeavour to become a leader in AI and it will be a game changer.
The government has already created a roadmap for AI in the country through collaborations with MeitY, NASSCOM and DRDO. The Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) has also been established to boost AI-related research and development, Sreedhar said.
As AI is ubiquitous and cross cutting everything, the Centre should also come up with a framework and scheme to encourage corporates and academic institutions to participate in development of AI. It is time to bring exclusive national AI policy and also the AI Act, he felt.
About 30 Skill India International Centres will come up across the country to impart skills to lakhs of youth in the next three years. The GoI will introduce on-the-job training across all short-term courses, while launching new age courses that will be industry-specific as part of the revamped PMKVY 4.0.
The digital ecosystem for skilling will expand further with the launch of a unified skill India digital platform for enabling demand-based formal skilling, linking with employers, including MSMEs and facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes to provide a stipend support to 4.7 million youth in three years.
The Union Finance Minister also announced plans to launch courses in coding, artificial intelligence, drone technology, IoT, robotics, among others, he said. Being the country with the largest young workforce in the world, skilling and innovation are the two key elements that will position India on top place in the global map.
“There is a huge gap in niche skills. As per statistics, we have five million IT workforce in the country, but only 0.3 million are into niche skills. One model will not work across all the skill sectors. Hence, the Centre should set up a separate agency with the industry giants to meet the skilling needs in the niche areas. Though we have some initiatives like future skills of NASSCOM, we need to scale them up and should bring multiple players into the picture,” he stressed.