India, with a population of more than 1.3 million people, is one of the world's largest waste producers, producing around 62 million tons of municipal solid waste every year.
Waste management has historically been a predominantly manual operation around the world, but some countries have started to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to handle and process waste.
As a part of the Department of Commerce and Industry, the Government of India formed the Artificial Intelligence Task Force for India, in 2017, to push AI for economic benefits and to create a legal framework to speed up the implementation of AI technologies.
The task force aided in the expansion of AI applications in India. However, only 3 industries at present, i.e. the healthcare industry, Agriculture, and FinTech, are expected to gain AI benefits.
Given that waste management is a multibillion-dollar industry in India, there are major opportunities for AI to be implemented in this sector.
Over 10,000 tons of plastic waste is not collected in India, where an estimated 26,000 tons of plastic waste is produced every day.
The five cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata produce half of the country's plastic waste. Maharashtra and Delhi are the states that generate the most MSW and plastic waste, respectively. Here's where AI technology can be put to good use.
Leave a reply