INDIAN AI TALENT DROUGHT: A MYTH OR REALITY?

Despite all the intellect and prowess available in the country, investors and founders find the quality of AI-skilled talent challenging.

- BY PAROMITA GUPTA

With over 6,000 Artificial Intelligence and 60 Generative AI start-ups, India is poised to become an AI hub in the future. Government initiatives such as the IndiaAI Mission, the National AI portal, AI for India 2.0, and the USIndia AI Initiative are aiming to ensure this goal is accomplished.

The Information and Technology (IT) industry was estimated to have employed 5.43 million professionals as of March 2023, while 25,237 students passed from 23 branches of Indian Institutes of Technology alone in 2023.

Despite all the intellectual prowess available in the country, investors and founders find the quality of AI-skilled talent challenging. The concern is aggravated due to the prolonged practice of top IT professionals moving overseas. “We need more AI researchers. Where are they going to come from? ... 20 per cent of the global AI researchers are of Indian origin, and we should bring them back. Most of them are in the US, but we should bring them back the way China did over the past 15 years,” said Rajan Anandan, managing director, Peak XV at the Global IndiaAI summit.

According to a Deloitte India and Nasscom report, the demand for Indian AI talent is projected to grow from 600,000-650,000 to more than 1,250,000 by 2027. However, apart from reclaiming the talent abroad, there is a need to improve the quality of these professionals to meet the demand.

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