Was India's response to the Covid-19 pandemic possible without Data and AI?

India's response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been applauded across the world. The importance of gaps in data assets has been highlighted across war rooms that are fundamental for pandemic response and reopening of the economy. To instil confidence for economic and social value creation data resilience is the need of the hour. Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be the pillars of support to the government and businesses during the pandemic for virus containment. For instance, contact tracing, workforce planning and protection, resource optimization and restarting the economic engine in a systematic and secure manner.

What is becoming clearer is the fact that both the healthcare crisis during the pandemic and restarting the economy post the pandemic, can be addressed by data-driven AI. Given this background, The National Association of Software and Service Companies Nasscom ) has published the "Unlocking Value From Data and AI- The India Opportunity" published in August 2020 after taking into account recommendations from industry leaders.

• The report showcases that an integrated data utilization strategy can add $450- $500 billion to India's GDP by 2025. However, to achieve that a co-ordinated program is required across five building blocks along with the promotion of R&D and innovation in the field of AI.

• The report highlights that on the back of data and AI, India can achieve the bold vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2025. To achieve this, AI needs tobe extensively utilized in all sectors ranging from agriculture, MSMEs, financial services, healthcare to energy and logistics. It is believed that nearly 45% of this visionary value would be translated from consumer goods and retail, agriculture and banking and insurance sectors.

• The report further highlights the fact how AI can drive India's vision of inclusive development in 3 areas namely effective COVID-19 response and economic recovery, spearheading equitable growth and enhancing talent capabilities to project the country as a global hub of AI and data services.

• The report highlights the launching of a National Program for AI to be steered by an apex body in collaboration with various ministries, identifying datasets of national importance based on selected initiatives and creating a technology platform as marketplaces for public and private data and AI services.

• To create a favourable ecosystem for data and AI, the report outlines four steps which include creating an empowered and independent regulator to catalyse AI adoption, driving AI adoption through lighthouse projects, using PPP models to develop data and AI infrastructures and identifying priority themes for research and innovation aligned with national AI strategy.

The report highlights the 5 key building blocks that will promote increased data utilization and adoption of AI in the country.

1. Strategy, where the focus will be on developing a data and AI vision for the country, identifying priority use case based on their impact and preparing a long-term implementation plan

2. Data, where the effort will be made to assess the quality of the gathered data and align on gaps to be filled and develop programs to generate and provide data at a large scale

3. Technology stack, where the main objective will be to create platforms to securely host data, AI services, models and open-source libraries

4. Talent to define AI-specific roles and estimate the supply-demand gap in the AI workforce and execution which will be headed by an empowered central apex body.

Key Learnings-

• Data and AI have the potential to play a strong enabling role across sectors. India needs to act quickly and judiciously, to become the first country to launch a holistic data utilization and AI effort blueprint post the pandemic.

• Sectors such as consumer goods and retail, agriculture and banking and finance stand to be most benefitted through operations, risk detection and efficient marketing and sales.

• Multi-faceted use of AI can help to access India's vision of inclusive development be it effective COVID-19 response and economic recovery or catapulting India to the global hub for AI and data services.

• India should seize this opportunity and actively promote data and AI utilization through the 5 building blocks as highlighted.

The report concludes by laying importance on a mutual partnership from government ministries backed by adequate talent. To create a vibrant data economy, a dedicated and independent apex body with clear roles and responsibility should be formed to define and enforce data standards in the country.