To improve the integrity of public exams, the IndiaAI Mission has extended an invitation to Indian entrepreneurs and businesses to develop a scalable facial recognition technology driven by AI.

The project, which is a component of the IndiaAI Mission’s “face authentication challenge,” will give the top two teams a two-year contract and up to INR 1 Cr for the deployment of the final solution.  Ten more teams that made the short list will each get INR 5 lakhs to improve and test their ideas on a sample dataset.

“This solution must use one-to-many matching techniques to cross-reference new applications against a historical database in order to perform photo verification and de-duplication.”  A dependable, end-to-end AI solution is required due to the large number of applications and the possibility of duplicate registrations in order to guarantee (a) a fair, transparent, and merit-based framework,” an official statement said.

De-duplication in this sense refers to the act of locating and removing multiple copies of data in order to reduce data storage and guarantee that only a unique instance is recorded.

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The usage of facial verification algorithms will be mandatory for submitted solutions, according to a blog post on IndiaAI Mission.  There are two main goals for the project:

• Use AI to improve the fairness and impartiality of large-scale public exams and ensure that candidates are chosen on the basis of merit.
• Recognize several applications filed by the same person within a specified time frame.
• Establish a safe, automated mechanism that ensures each authorized application receives a single, distinct ID.
• Cross-sectoral applicability is necessary for solutions to be implemented across state organizations and government departments.

In addition to additional documentation including technical specifications, required certifications, and patents, candidates must demonstrate proprietary innovation in order to be eligible to compete in the challenge.  Candidates will also need to show that they have relevant experience from prior work in the public or private sectors.

October 25 is the deadline for submitting applications for the project.

In March of last year, the Union Cabinet authorized the IndiaAI Mission, which has a five-year budget of INR 10,372 Cr.  In addition to providing startups and academic institutions with state-of-the-art computing capacity, the mission seeks to establish India as a hub for artificial intelligence and develop tailored AI solutions for the nation.

Up until June, the IT ministry has implemented over 17,300 GPUs from suppliers such as NxtGen Cloud Technologies and Yotta Data Services of Hiranandani Group.  Abhishek Singh, CEO of the IndiaAI Mission, stated last month that the Center intends to install 38,000 GPUs overall at reasonable prices.

In addition, the government intends to establish 600 data labs nationwide to spur AI research and development.  Next is the drive for a domestic AI model.

The IndiaAI Mission chose three startups earlier this year to develop a domestic large language model (LLM): Sarvam AI, Gnani.ai, and Gan AI.  By February 2026, it is anticipated that the initial set of these AI models will be operationalized.

The Center chose eight more organizations, including Tech Mahindra, Fractal Analytics, and Avataar AI, to create basic AI models later in September of this year.

The core of this is India’s expanding GenAI ecosystem, which is expected to generate $17 billion in revenue by 2030.