DeepMind Brings AI Science Tools to India With $30M Grant Program

Google DeepMind is expanding its National Partnerships for AI initiative to India, announcing a collaboration with the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) to provide Indian researchers access to frontier AI tools including AlphaGenome, AI Co-scientist, and Earth AI.

India is already the fourth largest adopter of AlphaFold globally, with over 180,000 researchers using the protein-structure prediction system. DeepMind wants to expand that footprint with new tools.

"India is showing exceptional leadership in applying the technology to tackle its own biggest challenges," DeepMind wrote, noting the country is convening the fourth global AI summit this week.

The partnership will give Indian researchers access to:

AlphaGenome: An AI model for understanding how DNA mutations impact gene functions

AI Co-scientist: A multi-agent system acting as a virtual scientific collaborator

Earth AI: Gemini-based models for environmental monitoring and disaster response

DeepMind also announced a $30 million Google.org Impact Challenge: AI for Science, an open call for researchers and nonprofits using AI for scientific breakthroughs. Awardees get Google.org Accelerator support including engineering help and cloud infrastructure.

On the education front, India now leads the world in daily Gemini usage by students, per DeepMind's Ipsos survey. The company is expanding partnerships with Atal Tinkering Labs (serving 11 million students across 10,000 schools), and a first-of-its-kind deal with PM Publishers to transform 2 million textbooks into AI-powered interactive content across 2,000 schools.

The timing: India is the third largest solar energy generator globally (as of 2023) with a target of 500 GW renewable capacity by 2030. DeepMind also announced WeatherNext integration with Open Climate Fix showing up to 8% forecast accuracy improvement for wind generation in India.