Uttar Pradesh cabinet approves an AI Mission targeting 100 AI startups and 5 lakh trained youth

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, approved the Uttar Pradesh Artificial Intelligence Mission (UP-AIM) on Friday 9 October 2026, ETGovernment reports. Its targets: support at least 100 AI startups, train five lakh AI-skilled youth, prepare 50,000 "Forward Deployed AI Professionals", and develop or implement more than 100 AI use cases, of which 25 to 30 would be scaled up. The state plans AI centres in all 75 districts and a shared UP AI Stack with GPU computing, a secure data exchange and access to open-weight language models and testing sandboxes for startups and technology partners. The mission will run as an independent society under the IT and Electronics Department, led by a chief executive officer, and includes an AI Trust and Assurance Framework covering security, privacy, risk assessment, pre-deployment evaluation and human oversight for high-impact government uses. The Cabinet also approved a Startup Procurement Scheme, 2026, letting eligible startups sell directly to government departments for up to Rs 50 lakh, or Rs 1 crore in sunrise sectors including AI, deep tech and drones, according to the report.