Mumbai, May 29 (IANS). Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said Maharashtra is in a strong position to lead the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution and in the times to come, the sector will become the leader of development not only in India but across the world.
In an interview at the inauguration of Mumbai Tech Week 2026, the Chief Minister said Mumbai’s financial strength, technological expertise, strong startup ecosystem and ability to rapidly adopt new technologies make Maharashtra a leader in the AI sector.
Fadnavis said the state government has set a target of investing Rs 10,000 crore in the AI sector, creating 1.5 lakh jobs, setting up six centers of excellence and developing special AI innovation zones.
He said the state government is creating ‘compute-as-a-service’ infrastructure to accelerate AI research and innovation. Under this, 2,000 GPUs will be made available to startups and researchers.
“When high-powered computing facilities are expensive, the pace of innovation slows down. Therefore, the Maharashtra government is directly providing the necessary technical infrastructure,” the Chief Minister said.
He said that the government can only create the policy framework, but the real startup ecosystem is created by the efforts of entrepreneurs and innovators. He informed that the organization of tech entrepreneurs was envisioned in December 2022 and today a large number of startups, investors and global companies are connecting with Maharashtra.
Fadnavis claimed that Maharashtra has remained the leading state in the country in terms of investment and number of startups for three consecutive years.
He extended an open invitation to the startups and technology companies participating in Mumbai Tech Week from India and abroad to invest in Maharashtra. He said that this is the best time for those working in the technology and AI sector and Maharashtra provides an ideal platform for this.
The Chief Minister said that the State Government is not limited to just incubation and acceleration, but is also providing investment support through ‘Fund of Funds’. The government is ready to provide all possible support by becoming a partner of entrepreneurs.
He informed that AI is being used extensively in various departments of the state government. He described the ‘Maha-Vistaar’ app developed for farmers as a ‘one-stop solution’ for the farmers. This app was considered by the Central Government in the India AI Summit as the best agricultural technology solution in the country. After its success, the ‘India-Visar’ framework is being developed at the national level.
Fadnavis said that implementing AI based system in the building permission process will increase transparency and efficiency. At the same time, the ‘Crime OS’ platform developed for crime investigation and judicial processes will speed up the investigation, filing of chargesheet and judicial process.
He said, “Earlier it used to take three to four months to prepare a 15,000-page charge sheet, but with the help of AI, this work can now be completed in 10 to 12 days.”
The Chief Minister said that AI is also being used in fraud detection in medical insurance schemes, government human resource management, traffic control, disaster management and strengthening monitoring mechanisms. The state government has set a target of developing 50 special AI engines for various departments.
Referring to challenges like data security, trust and deepfakes, Fadnavis said the core of the state’s AI policy is ‘ethical AI’. He stressed that AI should not be limited to big companies only, but should be made accessible to everyone.
He said that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) should also get the benefits of AI and human intervention and core human values should be kept at the center in its development.
–IANS
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