Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India must urgently build sovereign AI capabilities or risk becoming dependent on foreign technology firms that are using Indian data to strengthen their own models, former CEO of Niti Ayog Amitabh Kant said. Speaking at the Mint All About AI Tech4Good Awards, he said the country’s technological trajectory will be defined by how quickly it expands its domestic computer infrastructure, protects sensitive data, and supports startups building indigenous AI systems. “No other technology in recent times has taken the world by storm like artificial intelligence,” Kant said. He described the moment as a rare convergence of economic opportunity, national security concern, and demographic potential, adding that India’s position as one of the world’s largest generators of digital data gives it a unique opening to shape AI systems rooted in local needs.
Kant warned that while India’s digital public infrastructure has powered inclusion at scale, the country’s lagging compute capacity threatens to slow its progress. He pointed to the recent OpenAI and Nvidia partnership to create 10 gigawatts of GPU capacity, equivalent to roughly five million of the latest high-performance processors. India, by comparison, has a base of about 30,000 GPUs.
“Bridging this gap requires massive private sector investment and foreign direct investment. Today, OpenAI’s ChatGPT in India reportedly has more monthly active users than in any other country. About 33 per cent higher than even the United States,” he said. He argued that sovereign capability is essential for three reasons. First, self-reliance would encourage a stronger domestic startup ecosystem and attract capital into AI hardware and software. Second, models attuned to India’s languages, cultural context, and public sector needs would make AI applicable to every citizen. Third, a secure domestic infrastructure would be critical for national security, particularly as AI systems become deeply embedded in public services.
