India isn’t just joining the AI race But rewriting the rules, and the world is watching

While OpenAI and other global tech giants are racing to conquer the AI world, India has been quietly charting its own path: one that emphasizes self-reliance, local innovation, and digital sovereignty. The ₹10,300 crore investment for the IndiaAI Mission is not merely about catching up with the West. It is about ensuring that the future of Artificial Intelligence in India is created by Indians, for Indians, and on Indian soil.

What Is IndiaAI Mission?

While players such as OpenAI are planning for data centres and country-specific services, India is indeed going forth with sovereign AI compute infrastructure. More than 18,000 GPUs have been procured by the Government under the IndiaAI Mission, from prominent Indian entities such as Jio Platforms, Yotta, NxtGen, CtrlS, and Tata Communications. And this is merely a beginning; a second tender for almost 15,000 more GPUs is underway that would bring India's total GPU count to around 29,000, making it one of the largest AI compute infrastructures on this Earth.

India's Own AI Model

India does not want to be just a passive user. In a landmark decision, the government has selected Sarvam, the AI startup based in India, to develop the country's first sovereign large language model (LLM) under the IndiaAI Mission. This model will be something created entirely in India and optimized for Indian languages and voice applications and expects to be an operational Myriad-scale population. The goal is clear: promote strategic autonomy, reignite domestic innovation, and ensure India’s data and intelligence remain within its territorial boundaries. 

Having outperformed some of the top models worldwide on Indian language benchmarks, technology from Sarvam shows that Indian talent can indeed compete in cost and quality. The government supports this endeavor with funding, high-end computing resources, and a startup- and researcher-friendly ecosystem. 

Open, Local, and Inclusive: The IndiaAI Model

In stark contrast to AI giants abroad who choose closed, proprietary approaches, India's approach challenges the concept of closed-source. IndiaAI calls for open-weight models, local data, and very strong public-private partnerships. The IndiaAI Mission rests on seven pillars: compute capacity, innovation centres, national datasets platform, application development, future skills, startup financing, and emphasis on safe and trusted AI. The goal is to democratize the access to AI so that students, startups, and researchers across the country can innovate without being dependent on foreign technologies. 

Indian startups and researchers have sent in over 500 proposals for developing indigenous AI models, with 120 in just one month. The government is encouraging these teams with grants, compute credits, and equity funding, with priority given to models in healthcare, education, and financial services that serve Indian needs.

IndiaAI isn’t merely one for the high-tech labs in Bengaluru or Hyderabad. The mission is to make AI skills accessible to the rest of the country. The Intel India and IndiaAI Mission partnership is setting up programs like YuvaAI to help school kids learn AI basics. StartupAI helps young entrepreneurs convert their thoughts into AI applications. The concern? To make AI tools and training available to everyone in India, from a primary school kid in a lane of some isolated village to start-up founders in Mumbai.

The big hurdle for India in AI is language diversity. The Digital India Bhashini program, an initiative by Digital India Corporation (DIC), has come down heads and shoulders to counter that by building AI models supporting all 22 scheduled Indian languages. This means finally methods and tools of voice assistance, translation, and digital services can cater to all, not just those who can speak English. There are over 350 AI language models on the Bhashini platform already, paving the way for a truly inclusive Digital India. 

The India Skills Report 2024 indicates that the AI industry will hit US$ 28.8 billion by 2025, at a very brisk pace. India is setting up one of the largest AI compute infrastructures worldwide – thereby almost two-thirds of what ChatGPT uses globally. With over 70 research institutes collaborating and hundreds of startups joining in, the ecosystem is abuzz!

Digital Public Infrastructure Combines with AI

The ways in which India has developed its digital public infrastructure including, Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, etc., have already been recognized worldwide as major successes. The goal of the IndiaAI Mission is to do for AI what Open Source has done for software, making AI solutions part of public platforms and ensuring they are faster, smarter and easily available to all Indians. It’s about more than technology; we want every part of India to be a part of a digital society that is both safe and prepared for the future.

The Challenge is About Independent Digital Growth, Not Just New Technology

Building such an AI system also comes with many difficulties. There are yet to be enough AI experts, reliable data and good cloud facilities in India. Amidst increasing AI competition around the world, India is being recognized for its emphasis on freedom, transparency and helping its own people. The mission is more than just working on chips and data, its goal is to see that India’s digital development comes from Indian people and their values.

In the long run, the important question is not whether India can develop AI models that are as good as those elsewhere. The question is whether India’s strategy will bring about an inclusive, safe and self-sufficient digital environment. If the early signs are anything to go by, then the answer could be a resounding yes! Let’s be the first supporters and audience for IndiaAI.