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Tag: India AI Revolution

  • Beyond Major AI: How India is Shaping its Distinct AI Revolution?

    IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that India aims to develop small language models (SLMs) to address “distinct” issues, in addition to a large language model (LLM). Vaishnaw stated that the government is examining its own digital models with smaller models that can address specific, distinct issues.

    During a virtual address at the Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum 2025, the IT minister stated that the government is concentrating on generating a substantial quantity of non-personal and anonymised datasets for the training of domestically developed fundamental artificial intelligence (AI) models. Vaishnaw also enquired whether the country can establish a robust research foundation. India has established centres of excellence (CoEs), three of which are presently operational, with an additional one allocated in the budget.

    Digital Public Infrastructure Acting as a Catalyst

    Vasihnaw emphasised that structured data derived from state-supported digital public infrastructure (DPI) will enable India to “distinguish itself” in the forthcoming months and years in the AI competition. Vaishnaw observed that the Centre is utilising AI throughout the India Stack, including services like Digi Yatra, Aadhaar, and UPI. The Minister stated that the outcomes had been exceptional. The efficacy of DPI can be amplified by factors of 10, 15, or even 100, and we incorporate AI in this process.

    This will be a significant advantage for us due to our existing foundation. In a virtual fireside chat, Vaishnaw announced that Japan has granted a patent for UPI’s “gateway system.” A distinguished media site reported that the IT minister indicated the nation intends to shift from a services-orientated economy, particularly in IT services, to a product-centric powerhouse in sectors including semiconductors, AI, and consumer electronics. He stated that India’s aspirations in AI surpass simple service delivery or application creation. India might have confined itself to being a hub for use cases and application service provision, but the nation aspires to achieve far greater ambitions.

    Government’s Future Plan in the AI Sector

    The minister stated that the Centre is pursuing a comprehensive AI strategy, which encompasses the development of indigenous fundamental models, the creation of anonymised non-personal datasets for training, the establishment of centres of excellence for AI research, and the integration of AI education into institutions. The IT minister disclosed that 25 semiconductor products will be developed at the five upcoming semiconductor units in the country, where construction is currently ongoing.

    Regarding AI governance, Vaishnaw emphasised that the Centre will maintain a regulatory approach that fosters innovation rather than hinders it. “We must address the potential harm to society and regulate it; yet, we should not allow innovation to be suppressed as has occurred in numerous other nations,” he stated.

    This follows closely behind reports indicating that the Centre has received a minimum of 67 proposals for the development of a domestic AI basic model. The government has allegedly received offers for the development of 20 LLMs from domestic AI businesses, including Sarvam AI, CoRover, and Ola’s Krutrim.

    India Working on AI Governance Regulations: FM Nirmala Sitharaman
    Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman confirms India is developing AI governance regulations to ensure responsible and ethical artificial intelligence use.
    StartupTalkyNitin Konde

  • India Ought to be at the Forefront of the AI Revolution: Sam Altman

    India is an “incredibly important” market for the massive artificial intelligence (AI) company, according to Sam Altman, founder and CEO of OpenAI. Altman stated that India ought to be among the front-runners of the AI revolution at a fireside chat with Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of information technology (IT), on Wednesday, February 5. He described the nation’s adoption of the technology thus far and the use cases that have been developed on top of the large language models (LLMs) that are already in place as “really quite amazing.”

    The CEO of OpenAI added that the country’s user base has tripled in the last 12 months, making it the company’s second-largest market worldwide. When asked what areas India should prioritise in the field of artificial intelligence, Altman stated that he truly wanted to reaffirm the remarks regarding the full-stack approach.

    However, given what Indians are creating with AI at every stage of the stack—chips, models, the stack, and all the amazing applications—India ought to be taking the lead. India ought to be one of the pioneers of the AI movement. Seeing what the nation has accomplished is quite astounding. Altman arrived in India late on the evening of February 4th while on a multi-country global tour.

    Meeting Government Heads and  the Big Players of Indian Startup Sector

    He met with several Indian company owners and venture capitalists earlier in the day, as well as IT Minister Vaishnaw. Additionally, he is anticipated to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  He has private meetings with startup founders such as Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Gaurav Munjal of Unacademy, Srikanth Velamakanni of Fractal, Aloke Bajpai of ixigo, and Tushar Vashisht of HeathifyMe.

    Prominent investors Prayank Swaroop of Accel, Hemant Mohapatra of Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Rajan Anandan and Harshjit Sethi of Peak XV Partners also attended the conference. Pricing for Founders Bat in India According to a media reports, tech entrepreneurs primarily pitched the company for India-centric pricing at the founders’ meeting with Altman. Indian creators informed Altman that global pricing might not be effective in India and that major tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon already have pricing tailored to India.

    In order to guarantee that OpenAI’s products, including its APIs, are more reasonably priced for Indian developers and businesses, the founders also made a pitch to the CEO of the company. Although Altman refrained from making any commitments, he stated that the company is thinking about offering customised pricing for the Indian market. The CEO of OpenAI added that as the company develops more advanced and potent models, he anticipates expenses to drop “rapidly” over time.

    Cofounder Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal and Titan Capital acknowledged in a post on X that OpenAI product prices are “high” and that they must drop “dramatically” in order to be widely adopted. They acknowledge that the basic models can only go so far (“80-90% of the way”) and that a strong application layer will be required for particular industry/company contexts in order to raise it to 100%. For the numerous Indian businesses developing at the application layer, this is crucial,” Bahl continued.

    Tug of War Between Open AI and Chinese DeepSeek

    The tour takes place at a time when OpenAI is facing significant challenges due to the emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI search engine platform that claims to have developed AI models that can compete with the best models from US firms like OpenAI, Meta, and Google at a far lower cost. India has one of the biggest populations and developer pools in the world.

    OpenAI will be able to increase its earnings by establishing a physical base in the nation. The trip coincides with a wave of copyright infringement cases against the AI giant for allegedly exploiting local digital platforms’ and book publishers’ content to train its chatbot ChatGPT without permission.

    Meanwhile, OpenAI has apparently started talking about data localisations in an effort to ward off any additional regulatory obstacles. The corporation wants to store its Indian consumers’ data in the nation itself as part of this. Since India is one of the company’s largest developer ecosystems, OpenAI is naturally seeking methods to increase its presence there.

    In preparation for the Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 2023, it has already started talking about ways to localise the data of its Indian citizens in domestic data centres. A person with knowledge of the development told Livemint that the drive to localise data operations is probably going to start soon.

    India’s Foundational AI Model to Be Ready in 10 Months: Vaishnaw
    India’s indigenous foundational AI platform will be ready within ten months, says Vaishnaw, marking a major step in the country’s AI self-reliance efforts.
    StartupTalkyNitin Konde