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Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions should be developed to address challenges in sectors such as agriculture, healthcare and education, as enterprises solving real-world problems will find a market for their products, Anna Roy, Principal Economic Advisor at NITI Aayog, told ANI today.
"AI is just a route. AI is a new technology. We should not get weighed in by just AI. AI needs to be linked to the ground challenges. What are the use cases? In agri, in health, in education, we face several access barriers, we face several challenges. So if your solutions are aimed at leveraging AI to address those challenges, then your enterprise will get a market," Roy said while speaking to ANI in an exclusive interview. Roy, who is also the Mission Director of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), was speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the launch of the Women in Tech Accelerator Program. Highlighting efforts to promote women-led innovation in artificial intelligence, Roy said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) organised the India AI Impact Summit, under which three challenges were launched to showcase leading founders in the AI ecosystem. She said one of the challenges, titled "AI by Her", focused on women entrepreneurs developing AI-based solutions and was conducted by WEP under a whole-of-government approach. MeitY and the IndiaAI Mission have approved an initiative under which WEP will create an accelerator programme for leading women AI entrepreneurs identified through the summit challenges. "For the top 150 AI by Her and the women founders of AI for All challenge, WEP will create an accelerator programme under its awards-to-rewards programme, and we will be closely working with MeitY for this," she said. Speaking about the broader landscape of women entrepreneurship in India, Roy said the growth of women-led enterprises is promising but remains below its full potential, adding that several government initiatives are helping accelerate progress. She said access to knowledge remains a bigger challenge for women entrepreneurs than access to finance, noting that enterprises with strong business models, market access and the right networks are generally able to attract funding. "Everybody says it's access to finance. But I feel if your enterprise has a good business model, if you have the right connects, and if you have things sorted like access to market, then these enterprises will be able to raise funding," Roy said. She added that government initiatives such as the Mudra scheme, startup support programmes and state-level interventions are already promoting access to finance and supporting entrepreneurship. Roy encouraged women entrepreneurs to register on WEP, which provides access to more than 800 government schemes from the Centre and state governments, along with mentorship opportunities and peer-learning platforms. Emphasising the importance of women's participation in economic growth, Roy said studies have consistently shown that expanding women's participation in the labour force and the broader economy can substantially boost GDP growth. She added that achieving the country's ambitious Viksit Bharat goals would require greater participation of women across economic sectors and stronger support for women-led enterprises. (ANI)
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