How prepared is India to navigate the AI revolution, as it begins to rewrite not only the global economy but also political power and social order? Beyond announcements and ambition lies a harder test: whether India can shape artificial intelligence on its own terms while relying on technologies it does not control. The answer will define not just innovation outcomes, but India’s position in a rapidly fragmenting global order.
In early 2026, India stands at a genuine inflection point in artificial intelligence(AI). Through the multibillion-rupee IndiaAI Mission, the government has committed unprecedented resources to AI research, compute access, and digital infrastructure. Indian startups are no longer merely adopting AI; they are training large language models, releasing open source tools, and competing in global markets.
Yet India’s AI ascent remains structurally constrained. Cutting-edge models are trained on export-controlled Western GPUs, deployed on foreign cloud platforms, and built using open-source frameworks largely developed outside the country. As a result, India’s aspiration to emerge as an “AI powerhouse” is tempered by the realities of global supply chains, export controls, and intellectual property regimes.