India’s AI Revolution

India is rapidly advancing in artificial intelligence, driven by government initiatives, a strong tech sector, and increasing AI adoption across industries like banking, healthcare, and retail. The country is developing an inclusive AI ecosystem through infrastructure development, talent cultivation, and support for startups, with a focus on leveraging AI for societal needs in areas like agriculture, education, and smart cities. Key efforts include the IndiaAI Mission, the NITI Aayog’s national strategy, Digital ShramSetu and projects like Bhashini to break language barriers.

India stands at the cusp of a new era powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), where technology is transforming lives and shaping the nation’s progress. AI is no longer limited to research labs or big corporations. It is reaching citizens at every level. From improving healthcare access in remote areas to helping farmers make informed crop decisions, AI is making daily life simpler, smarter, and more connected. It is revolutionising classrooms through personalised learning, making cities cleaner and safer, and enhancing public services through faster, data-driven governance.

Initiatives such as the IndiaAI Mission and the Centres of Excellence for AI are at the heart of this transformation. They are expanding access to computing power, supporting research, and helping startups and institutions create solutions that directly benefit people. India’s approach focuses on making AI open, affordable, and accessible, ensuring that innovation uplifts society as a whole.

This inclusive vision is also reflected in NITI Aayog’s report, AI for Inclusive Societal Development (October 2025). The report shows how AI can empower India’s 490 million informal workers by expanding access to healthcare, education, skilling, and financial inclusion. It highlights how AI-driven tools can boost productivity and resilience for millions who form the backbone of India’s economy. The report also stresses that technology can bridge deep social and economic divides, ensuring that the benefits of AI reach every citizen.

As India builds an inclusive AI ecosystem, its growing global recognition reflects this progress. Rankings such as the Stanford AI Index place India among the top four countries in AI skills, capabilities, and policies. The country is also the second-largest contributor to AI projects on GitHub, highlighting the strength of its developer community. With a strong STEM workforce, expanding research ecosystem, and growing digital infrastructure, India is positioning itself to harness AI for economic growth, societal progress, and the long-term vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047.

As of a recent estimate, Over. 6 million people are employed in the tech and AI ecosystem. The country hosts 1,800+ Global Capability Centres, including more than 500 focused on AI.India has around 1.8 lakh startups, and nearly 89% of new startups launched last year used AI in their products or services.And on the NASSCOM AI Adoption Index, India scores 2.45 out of 4, showing that 87% of enterprises are actively using AI solutions.

IndiaAI Mission

Guided by the vision of “Making AI in India and Making AI Work for India”, the Cabinet approved the IndiaAI Mission in March 2024, with a budget outlay of ₹10,371.92 crore over five years. The mission marks a defining step towards making India a global leader in Artificial Intelligence.

Since its launch, the mission has made strong progress in expanding the country’s computing infrastructure. From an initial target of 10,000 GPUs, India has now achieved 38,000 GPUs, providing affordable access to world-class AI resources.

Implemented by IndiaAI, an independent business division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the mission is building a comprehensive ecosystem that drives innovation, supports startups, strengthens data access, and ensures the responsible use of AI for public good.

The seven pillars of the IndiaAI Mission are:

1. IndiaAI Compute Pillar

This pillar provides high-end GPUs at affordable costs. As mentioned earlier, over 38,000 GPUs have been on boarded. These GPUs are available at a subsidized rate of just ₹65 per hour.

2. IndiaAI Application Development Initiative

This pillar develops AI applications for India-specific challenges. Sectors include healthcare, agriculture, climate change, governance, and assistive learning technologies. Thirty applications have been approved by July 2025. Sector-specific hackathons are organized with ministries and institutions. For example, the CyberGuard AI Hackathon helps develop AI solutions for cybersecurity.

3. AIKosh (Dataset Platform)

AIKosh develops large datasets for training AI models. It integrates data from government and non-government sources. The platform has over 3,000 datasets and 243 AI models across 20 sectors. These resources help developers focus on AI solutions instead of building basic modules. The platform has over 265,000 visits, 6,000 registered users, and 13,000 downloads by July 2025.

4. IndiaAI Foundation Models

This pillar develops India’s own Large Multimodal Models using Indian data and languages. It ensures sovereign capability and global competitiveness in generative AI. IndiaAI received over 500 proposals. In the first phase, four startups were selected: Sarvam AI, Soket AI, Gnani AI, and Gan AI.

5. IndiaAI FutureSkills

This pillar builds AI-skilled professionals. Support is provided to 500 PhD fellows, 5,000 postgraduates, and 8,000 undergraduates. Over 200 students received fellowships by July 2025. Twenty-six institutes onboarded PhD students. Data and AI Labs are being set up in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Twenty-seven labs have been identified with NIELIT. States and UTs nominated 174 ITIs and polytechnics for labs.

6. IndiaAI Startup Financing

This pillar provides financial support to AI startups. The IndiaAI Startups Global program launched in March 2025. It helps 10 Indian startups expand into the European market in collaboration with Station F and HEC Paris.

7. Safe and Trusted AI

This pillar ensures responsible AI adoption with strong governance. Eight projects were selected in the first round. They focus on machine unlearning, bias mitigation, privacy-preserving ML, explainability, auditing, and governance testing. Over 400 applications were received in the second round. An expression of interest was published on 9 May 2025 for partner institutions to join the IndiaAI Safety Institute.

Other Key Government Initiatives and Policy Push

The Government of India is turning its Artificial Intelligence vision into action through a series of transformative initiatives. These efforts are focused on building a robust AI ecosystem, promoting innovation, and ensuring that technology serves every section of society. From creating world-class research hubs to developing homegrown AI models, the government’s approach combines policy, infrastructure, and capacity-building in equal measure.

Centres of Excellence for AI

To encourage research-driven innovation, the government has set up three Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in key sectors such as Healthcare, Agriculture, and Sustainable Cities. A fourth CoE for Education was announced in Budget 2025. These centres are designed to serve as collaborative spaces where academia, industry, and government institutions come together to develop scalable AI solutions. Alongside, five National Centres of Excellence for Skilling have been established to prepare the youth with industry-relevant AI skills, building a future-ready workforce.

AI Competency Framework

This framework provides structured training for government officials, helping them acquire essential AI skills and apply them in policymaking and governance. Designed in line with global benchmarks, it ensures that India’s public sector remains informed, agile, and prepared for the AI-driven future.

IndiaAI Startups Global Acceleration Programme

Launched in partnership with Station F in Paris and HEC Paris, this programme supports ten promising Indian AI startups by giving them access to global expertise, networks, and resources. It aims to help Indian innovators compete at an international level and expand their global footprint.

Sarvam AI: Smarter Aadhaar Services

Sarvam AI, a Bengaluru-based company, is translating advanced AI research into practical governance solutions. In partnership with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), it is using generative AI to make Aadhaar services smarter and more secure. In April 2025, Sarvam AI received approval to build India’s Sovereign LLM Ecosystem, an open-source model designed to enhance public service delivery and promote digital trust.

Bhashini: Voice for Digital Inclusion

Bhashini is an AI-powered platform that breaks language barriers by offering translation and speech tools in multiple Indian languages. It helps citizens access digital services easily, even if they are not comfortable reading or writing. In June 2025, the Digital India Bhashini Division and the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) signed an MoU to deploy multilingual AI solutions across public-facing railway platforms.

Since its launch in July 2022, Bhashini has crossed one million downloads, supports 20 Indian languages, and integrates more than 350 AI models. With 450+ active customers, it continues to promote digital inclusion and bridge linguistic divides.

India AI Impact Summit 2026

India will host the AI Impact Summit in February 2026. The summit will showcase India’s AI capabilities and encourage innovation across sectors. On September 18, 2025, India unveiled the event logo and key flagship initiatives.

AI in Everyday Life and Work

Artificial Intelligence is driving a new wave of innovation that touches every part of daily life, from healthcare and farming to education, governance, and climate prediction. It helps doctors diagnose diseases faster, assists farmers in making data-driven decisions, improves learning outcomes for students, and makes governance more efficient and transparent.

India’s approach to AI goes beyond technology, focusing on inclusion and empowerment. Through national initiatives and global collaborations, AI is being used to solve real-world challenges, enhance public services, and make opportunities more accessible to every citizen. From improving rural healthcare and predicting weather patterns to translating court judgments into regional languages, AI is emerging as a powerful enabler of progress in building a digitally empowered and equitable India.