PSA Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood launched ‘AI Playbooks for Agriculture and SMEs’ and ‘AI Sandbox White Paper’ to accelerate Responsible AI Adoption across India

23 October 2025, New Delhi: Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India, released three publications under the AI for India 2030 initiative led by the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) India, World Economic Forum (WEF). The release was announced in the presence of Mr. S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Mr. S.C.L. Das, Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Dr. Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (OPSA); and Mr. Anindya Banerjee, Advisor (Digital Infrastructure), Ministry of Agriculture. The three publications include:

• ‘Future Farming in India: AI Playbook for Agriculture’
• ‘Transforming Small Businesses: An AI Playbook for India’s SMEs’
• ‘Shaping the AI Sandbox Ecosystem for the Intelligent Age: White Paper’

Launched under the guidance of OPSA and MeitY, and driven by a multi-stakeholder Advisory Council, the AI for India 2030 initiative aims to develop frameworks with strategic and global relevance, placing responsible, inclusive, and scale-driven AI at the heart of India’s digital economy.

“India’s AI journey is defined by transformation at the grassroots. These playbooks are timely and provide clear strategies for making AI inclusive and impactful, ensuring that technological advancements translate into real benefits for our farmers, entrepreneurs, and communities nationwide. I urge all stakeholders to work collectively in implementing these actionable roadmaps for the nation’s growth. The convergence of multiple departments and initiatives reflected in these reports should translate into sustained momentum, and drive the wider adoption of AI across society,” said PSA Prof. Sood.

The playbooks provide actionable roadmaps to deploy AI solutions for India’s critical sectors, drawing on extensive field consultations, pilot projects, and input from government, industry, start-ups, academic institutions, and farmer organisations. Each publication features a collaborative model that defines roles for government, industry and start-ups, and last-mile actors. Mr. Purushottam Kaushik, Head, C4IR India, WEF presented a brief summary and methodology of the released publications.

“With these reports focusing on real sectors, we have a very good compendium that has come out through the participation of multiple stakeholders, showcasing a way forward. This playbook demonstrates how AI can be seamlessly woven into this transformation – unlocking new efficiencies, better decision-making, and greater prosperity for every farmer,” added Mr. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY.

The “Future Farming in India” playbook presents an outline to scale AI for millions of farmers, aiming to boost yields, manage risks, and improve market access. Its core is the IMPACT AI framework, which guides collaboration where governments enable through policy, industry creates solutions via sandboxes, and front-line workers deliver tools to farmers. Implementation leverages trusted local networks and regional languages to integrate AI advice seamlessly into daily farming decisions.

The “Transforming Small Businesses” playbook provides a strategic roadmap to help India’s SMEs overcome challenges in productivity, credit access, and market reach by democratising AI. The IMPACT AI framework is also central to this approach, guiding businesses from Awareness through experience centres and sandboxes to Action with AI maturity index, AI marketplace, tools and financing, further leading to recognition by celebrating pioneers. This cluster-based approach aims to foster widespread, tangible AI adoption across the small business ecosystem.

“The focus on MSMEs is both timely and strategic. AI use cases in these sectors are rapidly gaining momentum. Following these publications, we look forward to collaborating with industry partners and startups to translate these ideas into real-world implementations that directly benefit our small businesses,” said Mr. Das, Secretary, MSME.

“OPSA’s Science and Technology (S&T) Clusters can play a pivotal role in advancing the implementation roadmap outlined in these reports. Leveraging their existing ecosystem, the clusters can support capacity building and knowledge dissemination, particularly in the early stages. Moreover, the upcoming International S&T Clusters Conference that is being organised by the Office in December 2025 could integrate a dedicated focus on AI to further drive convergence and collaboration in this domain,” underlined Dr. Maini, Scientific Secretary, OPSA.

“The potential of AI to transform agriculture is being widely accepted. We are exploring various AI applications in agriculture, including digital crop surveys where imaging and data can be integrated through AI to enhance accuracy and insights,” said Mr. Banerjee.

The AI Sandbox White Paper lays out strategic and operational frameworks for establishing controlled environments to test and scale AI, ensuring solutions are secure, reliable, and aligned to India’s priorities.

The roadmap ahead focuses on coordinated action and measurable impact. State governments, industry bodies, technology providers, and financiers will come together to form implementation coalitions that translate playbook insights into funded projects across agriculture and key SME clusters. A unified monitoring framework will track progress through sector-specific indicators such as AI adoption, productivity gains, cost reductions, improved credit access, and better market realisation. Additionally, a dedicated knowledge platform will document and share best practices and success stories, enabling continuous learning and the scaling of effective solutions across India’s AI ecosystem.

Also Read: The Quiet Power of Biostimulants: Missing Link in Regenerative Agriculture

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