New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS): Microsoft-owned AI-powered platform Github now has 13.2 million developers in India, with 3.5 million joining the platform from the country this year alone.

Developers in India are the second biggest contributor to generative AI projects on GitHub globally.

With this sustained and significant growth, GitHub forecasts that India will surpass the US in total developer population by 2027.

“India's growing developer community is central to the country's position as an innovation powerhouse. It's exciting to see Indian developers making significant contributions to generative AI projects on GitHub, highlighting India's growing significance in the AI landscape, with the country’s developers directly shaping the future of AI innovation worldwide,” said Sharryn Napier, VP of APAC at GitHub.

The 2023 edition of GitHub’s State of the Octoverse report showed that generative AI is driving a significant and global spike in individual contributors to generative AI projects with 148 per cent year-over-year (YoY) growth.

Notably, the US, India, and Germany are leading the way among developer communities, with other regions, including the UK, Japan, Hong Kong, and France following.

India’s developer community has experienced consistent YoY growth, including a 36 per cent increase in 2023.

India’s been building its digital public infrastructure with open materials -- ranging from software code to AI models -- to improve digital payments and ecommerce systems for itself and other countries.