IndiaAI Mission Organises Workshop on AIKosh to Strengthen India’s AI-Ready Data Ecosystem

A workshop on AIKosh, the national datasets and models platform under the IndiaAI Mission, was organised today at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The workshop brought together representatives from Government, industry, academia and the startup ecosystem to deliberate on measures to unlock the potential of India’s data for Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The day began with a welcome address by Mohammed Y. Safirulla K, Director, IndiaAI Mission, who introduced AIKosh to the delegates, followed by opening remarks from Shri Sudeep Shrivastava, COO, IndiaAI Mission, who set out the agenda for the day.

Delivering remarks on “Data as National Wealth: India’s Imperative for Sovereign AI,” Shri Saurabh Vijay, CEO, IndiaAI Mission, underlined the strategic importance of data for India’s sovereign AI ambitions and the need to unlock the value of the country’s data assets for innovation and national development.

The workshop was formally inaugurated by Dr. Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), who highlighted the importance of strengthening India’s data ecosystem and enabling responsible use of data to support emerging AI capabilities.

The first session, “Thought Leadership: Unlocking AI Data at Scale,” brought together data and AI experts from industry and academia, including representatives of Google DeepMind, UIDAI, the World Bank, IIT Jodhpur, EkStep and CoRover.ai, for a panel discussion on lawful data sharing, privacy-preserving use, and the case for and against sharing specific categories of data. The session was moderated by Shri Suhel Bidani, Deputy Director, Digital and AI, Gates Foundation, and closed with an open discussion with the audience.

The session was followed by three short keynote addresses: “Unlocking Data for AI in Governance” by Nand Kumaram, CEO, National e-Governance Division (NeGD); “Scaling Data Unlock for Digital Public Goods” by Ms. Tanusree Deb Barma, Deputy Director General, UIDAI; and “Needs of the Open Data Ecosystem” by Abhishek Upperwal, Founder and CEO, SoketAI.(UPDATED ON 20TH AUGUST 2026)