India received more than two-thirds of the first-preference votes in the election for the Council Chair

India will take over as chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), close on the heels of assuming the presidency of the G20, the Ministry of Electronics and IT announced on Sunday.

GPAI is an international effort to foster responsible and human-centric development and use of Artificial Intelligence.

Union Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar will represent India at the GPAI conference in Tokyo on November 21, where France, the outgoing Council Chair, will be officially succeeded by India.

India was chosen to fill the two extra government seats on the Steering Committee after receiving more than a two-thirds majority of first-preference votes in the election for the Council Chair, with Canada and the United States coming in as the two next-best candidates.

The fact that India is in the chair reflects the fact that the rest of the world sees it as a trusted technology partner that has long promoted the moral use of technology to improve the lives of its people, the ministry’s press release said.

With the experience and diversity of the participating nations, GPAI is a groundbreaking initiative for developing a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges surrounding AI. By fostering advanced research and practical activities on AI-related priorities, the alliance hopes to close the gap between theory and practice.

The United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore are among the 25 nations that make up the GPAI. India joined the organization as a founding member in 2020.

According to the ministry, AI has been catalyzing the tech landscape & pushing further the envelope of human possibilities. AI is expected to add USD $967 Bn to Indian economy by 2035 and USD 450–500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025, accounting for 10% of the country’s USD 5 trillion GDP target.

Artificial Intelligence is a Kinetic enabler for growth of India’s Technology ecosystem & a force multiplier for achieving $1 Trillion Digital Economy goal by 2025, the ministry added.