SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions | SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Institutions: Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY)
IndiaAI, an Independent Business Division under MeitY’s Digital India Corporation, has launched the IndiaAI Face Authentication Challenge with a ₹2.5 Crore prize pool. The competition invites startups and companies to create a highly accurate, secure, and scalable AI-enabled solution for image verification and application de-duplication. The central aim is to leverage advanced facial verification algorithms to strengthen the integrity and fairness of large-scale public examinations and merit-based selections. The winning solution must be capable of using one-to-many matching techniques to guarantee a single, unique ID for every authorized applicant. The initiative is part of the broader IndiaAI Mission, which promotes inclusive growth and responsible, ethical use of AI solutions across various government and state organizations.
This initiative directly addresses governance and institutional integrity by leveraging sovereign technology development, aligning the digital mission with social justice goals and aiming to deploy highly scalable solutions across key public services.
What is Application De-duplication in this context? → Application de-duplication is the process of automatically detecting and eliminating duplicate applications submitted by the same candidate to ensure only one unique entry exists in a massive database. In public examinations, this prevents fraudulent attempts by candidates who submit multiple forms to game the system, ensuring a fair and impartial selection process.
What is IndiaAI Mission? → The IndiaAI Mission is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, launched with a significant budget (₹10,372 crore over 2024–2029) to strategically position India as a global leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) development and application. It operates under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), with IndiaAI (an Independent Business Division of the Digital India Corporation) as the implementation agency.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How quickly can MeitY integrate the winning AI face authentication solution into existing pan-India examination and recruitment portals?
Follow the full news here: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2179016