India on the cusp of becoming global ML powerhouse, says SiMa.Ai CEO Krishna Rangasayee

In an interaction with Indianexpress.com, Rangasayee shared his insights on the ever-changing landscape of ML technologies and how India, with its boundless talent pool, can be a game changer. 

The company, with $200 million in funding and a diverse range of clients, has made some significant strides in harnessing AI and ML solutions for edge devices (An edge device controls data flow between two networks, serving as network entry or exit points). Rangasayee has over three decades of experience in leading engineering at public traded semiconductor companies such as Xilinx.  

Machine Learning tech in India

Talking about the scope of ML technologies in India, Rangasayee asserted that the nation possesses immense opportunities and a willingness to take bold steps forward. This, according to him, is evidenced by the rapid pace at which AI developments are unfolding in India and the readiness among stakeholders to take risks. 

“While it has been a long journey of anticipation, I firmly believe that the moment has arrived. India is blossoming into a hub of phenomenal opportunities, attracting attention and investments from major multinational corporations worldwide. Moreover, Indian companies are not just keeping pace but are also evolving to become significant players on the global stage,” he said.

The Palette Edgematic Impact

Explaining their latest easy-to-use software release Palette Edgematic, Rangasayee said that usually it takes 9-12 months for a company with in-depth knowledge of ML to build a sophisticated application. Edgematic on the other hand enables anybody to build ML and use it. One of the key highlights of the software is its easy-to-use drag-and-drop GUI interface for no-code ML. 

“Instead of months spent studying for a PhD in ML, all you can do is construct your pipeline, hit a button, and get results back in minutes. This has not been done in the industry before. It allows anybody in the world to access ML without needing to know anything about architecture or software.”  

A vision for the future

According to the founder, Sima.ai is superior to giants like Nvidia as evidenced by MLPerf benchmarks which are the ‘ML Olympics’. “We are the first startup to beat Nvidia in performance and power for edge devices. We have a purpose-built architecture, not a legacy GPU,” he said. 

Further elaborating on his vision for the future, Rangasayee said that if his 12-year-old niece could build an ML pipeline anybody should be able to. “We want to bring ML to that level of simplicity to make it available to everybody.”

India’s burgeoning talent pool is a key pillar to all the technological developments happening in the country. While praising Indian talents in software and systems engineering, Rangasayee said that anything that he believes can be done in India is done in India. The CEO also identified ML software as an area of growth for India to build its expertise in.