Budget day is upon us and standing finance minister Piyush Goyal is currently announcing the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) sixth and final budget, which is also an interim one. Apart from the two major focus points — income tax and farm package, we are hoping announcements around various sectors including telecom, information technology, consumer goods, and more.

One of the prominent and probably an important announcement was made around artificial intelligence (AI). Goyal announced that a national centre for artificial intelligence is under consideration. Along with that a national AI portal will be developed soon.

This is probably a good step when it comes to the technology sector. AI has been one of biggest advancements in the past couple of years with tech giants incorporating machine learning into various products and services.

With US and China leading the AI race, India is lagging behind when it comes to both data and availability of skilled professionals who can handle data. The problem is that while US has names like Google and China has Baidu, India primarily has startups that are developers of AI. The absence of a big name also means that most of the support to develop this sector comes from the government. Hopefully the interim budget will focus on allocating a large chunk of money dedicated for the development of AI in India.