Synopsis
The Centre has empanelled six partner firms, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to develop and deploy AI solutions across government departments. More than 80 companies had submitted bids for the request for empanelment (RFE), which closed last week, with firms such as KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, EY, Fractal Analytics, Gnani AI and Jio Haptik missing the final shortlist on February 27.More than 80 companies had submitted bids for the request for empanelment (RFE), which closed last week, with firms such as KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, EY, Fractal Analytics, Gnani AI and Jio Haptik missing the final shortlist on February 27.
Besides TCS, the government would partner Innefu Labs, CoRover, Cactus Communications, Kyndryl Solutions and NEC Corporation to power its AI journey.
The National e-Governance Division (NeGD), the technology arm of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) that powers key digital platforms such as UMANG and DigiLocker, had invited proposals across seven service categories for AI deployment over a two-year period.
The primary objective of the exercise was price discovery, with Innefu Labs emerging as the lowest bidder (L1) for providing on-demand AI manpower at approximately Rs 40 lakh per month for all personnel. TCS emerged the second lowest bidder at Rs 42 lakh per month. Shortlisted entities will be required to match L1 bids.
According to the RFE document, the initiative aims to create a ready pipeline of AI/ML talent that can be deployed on demand for government projects, while also establishing transparent, standardised pricing for such manpower.
“India has been pushing to embed AI across citizen services, however, lack of specialised talent and fragmented procurement processes have often slowed execution,” said Tarun Wig, founder, Innefu Labs. “By creating a standardised talent marketplace, the government aims to accelerate AI adoption, reduce costs, and improve project outcomes across departments,” he added.
The move is part of a broader effort by MeitY to build institutional AI capacity within the government, enabling faster execution of projects across citizen services, analytics, automation and process optimisation.
Under the framework, empanelled agencies will supply specialised AI, data science and machine learning professionals to support government initiatives. These experts will work on building AI applications, fine-tuning open-source AI models, building conversational AI assistants and running pilot programmes. Companies will also be responsible for deploying inference infrastructure.
TCS, Kyndryl, CoRover and Cactus did not respond to ET’s queries till press time Thursday, while NEC declined to comment.
MeitY is actively driving the integration of AI across government departments to make digital services more inclusive, accessible, and efficient. Some of these initiatives include Bhashini translation and speech tools, the AIKosh datasets for model training, and Aadhaar enhancement through partnership with Sarvam AI.
