Microsoft NextGen Network Workshop on Artificial Intelligence (Closed door)
The pandemic has made a case for leapfroging into the realms of futuristic technologies. The Ananta Centre, New Delhi, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute, USA, organised the second phase of the NextGen Network – AI workshop on 17 December 2020 in a closed-door, virtual roundtable.
The participants in this dialogue, emerging young leaders in the AI space in India, represented a broad cross-section of stakeholders including tech-innovators, inventors, school and college students.
The workshop used a participant-driven, interactive format to understand how the pandemic has provided significant impetus to AI-driven development in India and how one can integrate principles of inclusivity and universal accessibility into these developments. These discussions helped participants understand where India is currently in the area of AI absorption and how it can leverage these technologies to address its development needs.
India, Singapore and the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence
30 September 2020
The objective of this closed door roundtable jointly organised by the Ananta Centre, New Delhi and the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore was to identify the positions of India and Singapore on Artificial Intelligence and delineate priorities and interests of both countries as they discuss AI norms and rules through the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI).
Key takeaways:
- India launched an AI initiative called "AI for All" in 2018. through the National Institute for the Transformation of India (NITI Aayog)
- Most of the Indian Government's data sets developed for stakeholders exist in a regulatory vacuum. Data is currently governed under provisions of the Information Technology Act (2000). However, the government is looking to bring a new Personal Data Protection Bill which will comprehensively cover issues under personal data protection.
- The impetus, in India, should be to create open data platforms where data generated through government initiatives, for example, can be easily accessed and leveraged.
- The Government should transfer personal data to the private sector only through a citizen consent mechanism.
- To successfully adopt AI, India must move beyond developing AI applications and introduce policies to help cultivate technical skills and foster innovation.
Towards more efficient public service delivery
Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain have the potential to remodel public service delivery making it more transparent, reliable and efficient.
Ananta Centre and KPMG India are organising a series of seminars to discuss the potential of applying these technologies across domains and platforms of service delivery.
Better understanding. Broader consensus.
Most narratives around technology innovation focus on a few specialists and technocrats. As a result those who will be impacted by the these technologies or, will be a part of the process that implements them, remain largely ignorant of the potential of the innovation.
It is for this reason that the Ananta Centre partnered with KPMG in India worked to develop a platform where this kind of highly technical knowledge could be translated and shared with a broader cross-section of stake-holders. And since these technologies are likely to impact everyone in the near future, the stakeholder group is wide.
Objectives
- To educate and spread awareness regarding emerging technologies among the widest cross-section of Indians so that generalists and not only specialists may be able to comprehend these highly technical issues.
- Convene innovators and thought-leaders so that progressive agendas concerning these technologies may be developed and shared widely. In fact, the inaugural programme included a series of case-study presentations designed to highlight the application of A.I. and Blockchain to the betterment of public service delivery.
- With KPMG India as knowledge partner, Ananta Centre plans to publish a white paper to serve as a blueprint for the adoption of A.I. and Blockchain in efficient public service delivery.
