Govt gives an AI push with Rs 2,200 crore allocation

Budget's spending on AI zooms again

The government’s AI spending received another fillip in 2025-26, as the first full Budget presented by the finance minister allocated Rs 2,200 crore for the programme, compared with Rs 806.75 crore in the previous Budget.

The allocation marks an eightfold increase from the revised estimate of Rs283 crore, as the government prepares to stand its own in a world increasing dominated by artificial intelligence.

The increase also comes when China has shown its mettle with DeepSeek, an open-source AI model, upending the US dominance in the Large Language Model domain.

The union minister of Electronics and Information Technology had reiterated that India also had the capability to leverage its GPU prowess and build on the work done by the US and China to host models in India so that the data can be held on the Indian soil.

The government also increased the allocation for National AI Mission last year when it announced that it shall spend Rs 10,300 crore over the next five years.

The IndiaAI mission under the aegis of MEITY received an initial allocation of Rs 2,000 crore for FY26, while another 200 crore has been allocated to Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence.