From scale to service, India redefines AI leadership: Ashwini Vaishnaw
VINOD BHAT
NEW DELHI, Jan 21: India made a confident and impactful entry into the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) discourse at the World Economic Forum in Davos, firmly positioning itself among the world’s leading AI-ready nations. Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, articulated India’s vision, strategy and achievements during a high-level panel discussion titled “AI Power Play”, which examined the geopolitics of AI, its economic implications, governance challenges and pathways for inclusive global adoption.
The panel brought together some of the most influential voices shaping the global AI ecosystem. Moderated by Mr. Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group, the discussion featured Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); Mr. Brad Smith, President and Vice Chair of Microsoft; Mr. Khalid Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment; and Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, representing India’s rapidly expanding digital and technological footprint.
Addressing the global audience, Shri Vaishnaw asserted that India belongs to the “first group” of nations prepared for the AI-driven future, having made systematic progress across all five critical layers of AI architecture—applications, models, chips, infrastructure and energy. He underlined that unlike approaches focused solely on building the largest and most expensive AI models, India’s strategy prioritises real-world deployment, economic sustainability and measurable return on investment (ROI).
“Return on investment does not come from creating the biggest models,” Shri Vaishnaw said, pointing out that nearly 95 per cent of real-world AI use cases can be effectively addressed using mid-sized models in the 20–50 billion parameter range. He highlighted that India has already developed a bouquet of such efficient and cost-effective AI models, which are being actively deployed across sectors to improve productivity, service delivery and technological efficiency. This pragmatic approach, he explained, enables India to offer maximum impact at a significantly lower cost, a critical advantage in the era of the Fifth Industrial Revolution.
Backing his remarks with global benchmarks, the Minister noted that Stanford University ranks India third worldwide in AI penetration and preparedness, and second globally in AI talent, underscoring the country’s strong human capital base and growing innovation ecosystem.
A major focus of India’s AI strategy, Shri Vaishnaw said, is large-scale diffusion and democratisation of AI. To overcome the global shortage and high cost of advanced computing infrastructure, particularly GPUs, the Government of India has adopted a public-private partnership (PPP) model. Under this initiative, 38,000 GPUs have been empanelled as a shared national compute facility, subsidised by the government and made available to students, researchers and startups at nearly one-third of prevailing global costs. This move, he said, ensures that access to advanced AI tools is not restricted to a few large corporations but is widely available across the innovation ecosystem.
Complementing infrastructure support, Shri Vaishnaw highlighted India’s ambitious nationwide AI skilling programme, which aims to train 10 million people. The initiative is designed to ensure that India’s vast IT workforce and startup ecosystem are fully equipped to leverage AI for both domestic applications and global service delivery, further strengthening India’s position as a trusted digital partner to the world.
On the critical issue of regulation, the Minister outlined India’s distinctive techno-legal approach to AI governance. He stressed that legal frameworks alone are insufficient to address the complex challenges posed by AI technologies. “We must build technical solutions to detect bias, authenticate deepfakes with court-admissible accuracy, and ensure safe deployment through mechanisms such as unlearning,” he said, adding that India is actively developing indigenous technological safeguards to enhance trust, accountability and safety in AI systems.
Other panelists and global stakeholders acknowledged India’s rising influence in the AI domain. Moderator Ian Bremmer observed that India has emerged over the past decade as a significant geopolitical and technological force, while leaders from global institutions and industry praised India’s emphasis on accessibility, diffusion and sovereign AI capability as a replicable model for emerging economies.
As discussions at Davos continue to shape the future of global technology governance, India’s message was clear and compelling: AI must be inclusive, affordable, trusted and rooted in real-world impact—and India is ready to lead that transformation.
