India floats DEPA AI plan where model travels to data

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has floated the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture for AI Training, a plan to build local AI models using local data while limiting open access by large technology companies. The ministry says offshore model makers may not address Indian issues or keep data owners in control.

How the architecture works

Professor Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, described the idea as "the model travels to the data, rather than the data travelling to the model." Training Data Providers such as hospitals, banks, and government agencies would share anonymized and encrypted data with a Data Exchange Platform. Training Data Consumers would access that data to train models. Data Exchange Platforms would run hardware-based Secure Data Environments where data stays encrypted and isolated even during processing, and would enforce rules set by providers. Differential privacy techniques would be applied to prevent the model from learning or revealing individual specific information, and all activity would be immutably logged for audit purposes.

Potential uses across sectors

MeitY says the scheme could unlock fragmented health data for AI-driven diagnostics, drug discovery, and public health management. In financial services, it could enable secure sharing of diverse data among India's thousands of banks, potentially extending formal credit to 400 million underserved individuals and MSMEs and supporting fintech innovation. In education, it could help AI-powered personalized learning for millions and create portable skill credentials for 250 million students in a $29 billion EdTech sector.

India's broader digital aims

India already operates several data exchanges, but the framework does not say how much work remains before DEPA becomes reality. The framework presents DEPA as a catalyst for inclusive growth and responsible AI leadership, and as India's contribution to global science diplomacy alongside institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations. It also refers to digital public infrastructure, citing tools such as the Unified Payments Interface and the Bharat Taxi zero-commission ride-sharing platform, which India uses to limit Big Tech dominance and share with friendly nations.

Sources: The Register