Editorial: India’s Race against time on AI
The country’s short-term approach to problem-solving is hindering its ability to compete on a global scale
One often wonders why India always lags in technological innovations, despite being endowed with enormous human resources. When ‘DeepSeek’ recently took the technology world by storm by developing an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant at a fraction of the cost of American models, the immediate question that arose was why India cannot come up with a similar product and emerge as a leading player in the AI race. The global history of technological evolution is replete with instances of India consistently missing the innovation bus and later struggling with the catching-up game. The reasons for this are not far to seek: Low R&D spending, limited private sector involvement, shortage of skilled researchers, poor infrastructure for research, focus on adaptation rather than creation and lack of entrepreneurial culture. The country’s short-term approach to problem-solving is hindering its ability to compete on a global scale. India and China had started their journey with similar per capita GDPs in the 1960s and 1970s. However, China’s rapid economic and technological advancements since the 1980s have allowed it to surge ahead, leaving India struggling to catch up. The entry of ‘DeepSeek’, which is now threatening to end the domination of the United States in the AI market, is an example of what India is missing. Developed at a cost of just $6 million, the Chinese chatbot has already surpassed OpenAI’s models, topped the iOS App Store, and outperformed Meta in the open-source AI space. DeepSeek’s AI models have sparked fears that the US may struggle to maintain its AI primacy in the face of a brewing tech cold war with China.
IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s announcement of plans to build a domestic version of the Large Language Model (LLM) is a positive development. However, the road ahead is full of hurdles. The challenge for India is to not just play catch-up, but also to grab the opportunity that the production of advanced AI models at low costs presents. Though India is stepping up its AI game through the ‘IndiaAI Mission’, involving an investment of Rs 10,371 crore and plans to build a scalable GPU ecosystem to support AI innovation, the key question is whether we are moving fast enough in a world where AI is advancing at a lightning speed. The other question is whether the funding size and scale of ambition are sufficient, given the domination of America and China in the global AI arms race. The creation of GPU (Graphics Processing Units) infrastructure, a key component of ‘IndiaAI Mission’, is virtually a race against time. There are plans to acquire over 10,000 GPUs for AI research and applications. The US and China have already built vast GPU ecosystems, enabling real-time development and iteration of AI models. For India to catch up, we need not just faster deployment but also open access to this infrastructure for start-ups, researchers and enterprises.
