Maha’s 1st AI policy bets big on Rs 10,000cr investment over 5 yrs

Nagpur: Maharashtra govt on Wednesday formally notified its first artificial intelligence (AI) policy, setting a target of attracting more than Rs10,000 crore in investments over the next five years, in addition to creation of 1.5 lakh jobs and giving impetus for building the required infrastructure.The department of electronics, information technology and artificial intelligence (EITAI) mentioned in its latest circular that 2 lakh youths will be upskilled in AI-related domains and a startup fund of Rs500 crore has also been planned to promote entrepreneurship.A three-tier committee structure at the commissionerate, department and chief secretary-level will oversee the implementation of the AI policy, which has mandated that every govt department must adopt at least one AI use case. An AI use case means practical application of the technology which solves specific problems or improves operations.On the infrastructure side, the state will establish a Compute as a Service (CaaS) platform as a state-backed digital public infrastructure, and even deploy GPUs in certain areas, which will be marked as AI regions. Govt departments, educational institutions, and research bodies will access computing resources through this platform, while startups and MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) will be given subsidies.The policy targets establishment of one AI Centre of Excellence (CoE) and two AI incubators in each of the administration divisions.Global Capacity Centre (GCC) Parks will be set up in Nagpur, Mumbai, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and Nashik. The incentive package for AI units includes capital subsidies at different tiers, exemptions in stamp duty, tariff subsidy, rental reimbursements etc.A Maharashtra Applied AI Accelerator will be established to take AI solutions from pilot stage to production-scale deployment. For skilling, the state will establish Maharashtra Centre for Advanced AI Training (MCAT), which will collaborate with technology partners and academic institutions to deliver AI training programmes. Govt officials will also be trained in AI concepts and governance through YASHADA and CoE partners.The govt circular issued on Wednesday says the AI policy is structured around seven pillars: AI infrastructure development; creation of local datasets and platforms; talent development and skilling; a startup-first financing approach; an Applied AI Accelerator for scaling pilots; Centres of Excellence for applied AI research; and an ethical AI compliance framework.
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