See All News by Ravish Kumar
Namaskar.
India is hosting an AI Summit. Posters are up. Sessions are being scheduled. Speeches are being prepared. But before the lights turn on and the applause begins, there is a question that may sting a little:
Is India already behind in the AI race?
If that question makes you uncomfortable, it should. Because discomfort is where serious thinking begins.
A Century in a Month
In artificial intelligence, one month now feels heavier than a century.
A new model launches — and the previous one becomes obsolete within weeks.
Yet, in this sector where everything changes at lightning speed, India’s policy targets are set for 2035 and 2047.
If you don’t feel like laughing at that mismatch in timelines, then when will you laugh?
AI does not wait for five-year plans. It does not pause for conference banners. It moves — and it moves now.
Forty Years of IT. But Where Is AI Leadership?
India’s top five IT companies have 40–45 years of experience.
Global delivery. High-scale labor. Offshore excellence.
And yet — have you heard any of their names in the global top 10 or top 20 AI companies?
Look at the companies shaping AI today:
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NVIDIA
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Microsoft
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Alphabet
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Amazon
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OpenAI
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Anthropic
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Tesla
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Databricks
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Meta
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Mistral AI
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DeepSeek
Most are American. One is French. A few are Chinese.
Their AI tools are reshaping industries globally.
And India’s IT giants? Largely missing from this foundational layer of innovation.
Foundation Models: The Base Recipe
OpenAI built GPT.
Google built Gemini.
Anthropic built Claude.
Meta built LLaMA.
China built DeepSeek.
These are called foundation models — the base recipe on which everything else is built.
India does not yet have a globally competitive foundation model.
Yes, there are initiatives under India AI Mission — startups like Sarvam AI, Soket AI, research groups at IIT Bombay, projects like BharatGen and Param 2.
But let us ask honestly:
Are these competing at GPT level?
Is the world discussing them?
Optimism is good. Illusion is dangerous.
One Company vs One Country
In February 2026, NVIDIA’s market cap crossed $4.45 trillion. Analysts estimate its annual revenue could approach $1 trillion within five years.
India’s target?
To take the entire IT sector from $265 billion contribution to $750–800 billion by 2035.
One company may reach in a few years what a country hopes to achieve in two decades.
This is not about humiliation. It is about perspective.
Summits vs Substance
The summit promises:
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500 sessions
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3,000 speakers
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Events across Delhi, Goa, Telangana, Odisha
Big numbers create big noise. But what will change next month?
We have seen this before.
Make in India.
Digital India.
Smart Cities.
G20 branding everywhere.
The atmosphere was grand.
But atmosphere does not equal architecture.
You can color flyovers. You can put up banners. But innovation does not emerge from decorative enthusiasm.
The Policy Problem
The NITI Aayog report acknowledges that 70–80 lakh people work in India’s IT sector, many at entry or junior levels.
It even hints that many jobs may be affected by AI.
And then?
A small paragraph about reskilling.
Fifteen lakh jobs can be saved through reskilling, it says.
But what about the remaining sixty lakh? Silence.
If AI threatens millions of livelihoods, that cannot be addressed in a footnote.
Data: The Real Battlefield
Rahul Gandhi said something worth examining:
“The battle is about data.”
India generates massive data.
But where does that data sit?
On whose servers?
On which cloud infrastructures?
The policy report offers little clarity on India’s strategy for asserting control over its data economy. Without data sovereignty, AI leadership remains rhetoric.
Single Window, Again?
Turn to page 16, 17, 18 of the report — and you see “National Single Window.”
For ten years we have heard about simplifying business registration.
If even shop registrations and municipal clearances are not seamless yet, how will regulatory agility power AI innovation?
Ease of doing business matters. But repeating the phrase is not reform.
The Global Shift Is Ruthless
Tech billionaire Vinod Khosla has warned that AI could consume large portions of the BPO and software industry.
Imagine Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad — cities built around IT employment — facing structural disruption.
This is not alarmism. It is transition.
In a month, AI tools can reshape entire workflows.
And we are setting milestones for 2047.
Three Months, Not Twenty Years
Forget 2035.
Tell us what will happen in the next three months.
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What compute infrastructure will be deployed?
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What datasets will be opened?
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What regulatory barriers will be removed?
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What startup funding will accelerate foundation research?
AI is not a highway project.
You cannot inaugurate it with a ribbon and revisit it in five years.
Honest Assessment Is Not Anti-National
Questioning capacity is not weakening the nation.
It is strengthening it.
India’s IT sector was once considered a global leader. Yet in AI’s foundational layer, it is not leading.
That gap must be acknowledged.
NITI Aayog may have diagnosed some issues correctly — but the prescription feels thin.
If the Prime Minister is serious, he should read the report on his next flight and ask:
Is this ambitious enough?
Is this accountable enough?
Is this honest enough?
The Ground Beneath the Sky
Before looking at the sky of AI dreams, examine the ground beneath our feet.
We can build strong language models for Indian languages.
We can innovate in applications.
We can scale talent.
But we must not confuse participation with leadership.
AI is already here.
The storm has begun.
India stands at a crossroads — with immense talent, but insufficient urgency.
The question is not whether we can host a summit.
The question is whether we can build substance.
Think about it.
Ask questions.
Watch speeches — but measure results.
Namaskar.
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