While India aims to be the world’s AI use-case capital, the technology has already become a site of intense geopolitical friction. In a landscape where chips and models are instruments of power, India is pivoting toward prioritising strategic autonomy and sector-wide diffusion. Can India shape an AI pathway aligned with its interests, capacities, and constraints?
There is a sense of both urgency and scepticism surrounding the current state of artificial intelligence development and adoption. As narratives shift from the initial hype that fuelled what many consider an “AI bubble” toward a clearer understanding of the capabilities and limitations of generative AI, there is a growing need to evaluate the state of India’s AI infrastructure.
It is useful to view this infrastructure through the lens of a “stack”—a layered value chain comprising compute, data, models, and downstream applications. Across this stack, India’s priorities are clear: competition, strategic autonomy, and widespread access. However, in a technology where parts of the value chain have bottlenecks and where great powers focus on the unhindered pursuit of power and leverage dependencies, significant challenges remain. The many initiatives under the IndiaAI Mission help build a base level of capabilities, leverage strengths in specific areas, and focus on initiatives that address specific Indian use cases.