The concentration of AI development in a few hands poses a significant risk to India's technological sovereignty and future economic growth, according to Abhishek Singh, CEO of the IndiaAI Mission. Speaking at a recent technology event, Singh emphasized the importance of democratizing AI development and ensuring that India retains control over its data and intellectual property.

Singh's concerns stem from the increasing reliance on foreign AI platforms, which often offer "free" tools in exchange for access to vast amounts of user data. He cautioned that this data harvesting could allow global tech firms to train their AI models using Indian data, potentially creating a dependency on foreign technology and undermining the development of indigenous AI capabilities. He stressed that "In this world, nothing is truly free," and India must prioritize the development of its own AI models to maintain control over its datasets and innovation.

The CEO also highlighted the potential threat to India's IT workforce from foreign AI code generators like GitHub Copilot. With millions of Indians employed in software services, he warned that over-reliance on foreign models could erode their coding skills and create a disadvantage for Indian coders. To counter this, he suggested that major Indian IT companies should collaborate to build a national Indian code generator, supported by government funding.

The IndiaAI Mission, with a budget of ₹10,372 crore, aims to address these challenges by fostering a comprehensive AI ecosystem within the country. The mission focuses on several key pillars, including:

• IndiaAI Compute Capacity: Establishing a robust AI computing infrastructure with over 10,000 GPUs to support AI startups and research. As of October 2025, India has already achieved 38,000 GPUs.
• IndiaAI Innovation Centre: Developing indigenous Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) and foundational models for various sectors.
• IndiaAI Datasets Platform: Creating a unified platform to provide access to quality non-personal datasets for startups and researchers.
• IndiaAI Application Development Initiative: Developing and promoting impactful AI solutions for large-scale socio-economic transformation.

Singh has also emphasized the importance of ethical AI development, including funding institutions and startups to build tools for auditing AI algorithms, mitigating bias, generating synthetic data, and detecting deepfakes. The mission also prioritizes ensuring AI applications comply with Indian laws, including the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act.

The IndiaAI Mission also aims to democratize access to AI-powered services by making them available in multiple Indian languages and accessible through voice-based interfaces. This is particularly important for the millions of Indians who are not yet connected by digital systems.

While acknowledging the challenges ahead, Singh remains optimistic about India's potential to become a global leader in responsible AI development. He urges Indian AI startups to adopt a global outlook and build sustainable business models. By investing in infrastructure, fostering innovation, and promoting ethical practices, India can ensure that AI benefits all its citizens and contributes to its long-term economic growth.