India recently outlined its ambitious plans to establish a stronghold in the global artificial intelligence (AI) landscape, unveiling plans to build its indigenous foundational AI model, aiming to compete with established models like ChatGPT and Deepseek R1. This vision is supported by a massive initiative involving nearly 19,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), creating a highly affordable computing facility for startups and researchers across the country.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, the country’s IT minister, highlighted India’s growing commitment to AI development, emphasizing access to cutting-edge computing resources and the potential to host open-source AI models while ensuring data privacy. One notable move includes DeepSeek, which will soon be hosted on Indian servers, addressing privacy and security concerns surrounding its Chinese origins.
The announcement comes at a time when DeepSeek’s AI model made waves by surpassing ChatGPT to become the top-ranked free app on Apple’s app store. Vaishnaw stated, “India will build a foundational model that is world-class, and that it will be able to compete with the best models.”
On the applications front, India’s AI strategy is focused on using AI to tackle large-scale problems in critical sectors such as healthcare, education, agriculture, logistics, and weather forecasting. The government has launched a funding initiative and selected 18 projects for its first round of funding, targeting issues like agricultural innovation, learning disabilities, and climate change.
India also revealed additional steps in its AI development blueprint, including the introduction of 18,693 GPUs provided by empanelled bidders and the creation of an AI safety institution with eight approved projects. The government is also seeking proposals for the development of foundational models tailored to the unique Indian context.