An artificial intelligence (AI) cluster will be established at the Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City thanks to memorandum of understanding (MoU) that the state of Gujarat and global tech company IBM have signed.
IBM said in a statement that the cluster will encourage innovation and cooperation amongst financial institutions at the City by utilizing the tech giant&rsquo;s Watsonx GenAI platform.
IBM will help financial institutions with proof of concept and access to AI Sandbox, AI literacy initiatives, and digital assistant solutions as part of the agreement.
Essentially, the massive US tech company will provide cloud-based platforms that let financial institutions fine-tune big language artificial intelligence (LLM) models in a controlled setting. In the interim, these customized digital assistant solutions will make it easier to implement them.
Furthermore, IBM is going to create an AI-focused curriculum for all of the state&rsquo;s colleges and universities. IBM and the cooperation will provide certification programs to upskill professionals in Gujarat in emerging technologies. According to the IBM, the program is a part of their bigger strategy to train 2 million AI learners by the end of 2026 and 30 million individuals worldwide by 2030.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendrabhai Patel stated, &ldquo;This Memorandum of Understanding with IBM will help Gujarat to lead the country in efforts to adopt AI and drive digital transformation.&rdquo;
"This collaboration is a significant step in our continued association with the Government of Gujarat to accelerate the digital transformation of the state," said Sandip Patel, managing director of IBM India and South Asia, in response to the news. Our goal in creating this AI cluster is to provide GIFT City's thriving and expanding financial institutions with easy access to the newest AI technology. 
Through the use of GenAI, the numerous efforts are anticipated to significantly boost GIFT City. The news was released on the same day that Nifty IX revealed that GIFT Nifty had its greatest monthly turnover ever in June; with 21.23 lakh contracts valued INR 7.97 Lakh Cr ($95.55 Bn).
This occurs at a time when the fintech and financial services industries in India are quickly implementing technology to boost productivity, save expenses, and enhance customer care.
Vatsal Kanakiya, CTO of 100X.VC, recently stated to Inc42 that there may be applications for GenAI in the industry for digitizing and automating a number of repetitive manual business procedures. However, creating these company-specific LLMs from scratch is challenging. 
This has led to the emergence of numerous new Indian firms that are concentrating on this industry, like Gnani.ai. Slang Labs, Vitrai.AI, and Alltius. Consequently, investors are showing a strong level of interest in the rapidly expanding Indian Gen AI market.
Over $600 million has been raised by domestic GenAI startups between 2019 and 2023. Moreover, an increase in the number is anticipated.
The Center has also quickly increased its focus on marketing GIFT City as a virtual offshore destination for investors and companies, coinciding with the GenAI drive.
In addition, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the union government signed a $23 million financing arrangement earlier this month to support research and innovation in the fintech sector at the City. Unfi Capital, a venture capital firm based in Chennai, also announced two new funds at IFSCA earlier this month.
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Source : Inc 42

An AI cluster will be established at the Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City thanks to MoU that the state of Gujarat and global tech company IBM have signed

IBM Partners with Gujarat Government to Launch AI Cluster at GIFT City