Foundations of the Future: India’s AI Ecosystem Accelerates
The AI4India Weekly #55
India is stepping firmly into the era of self-reliant artificial intelligence. From investing in compute infrastructure and funding homegrown foundational models to skilling up its workforce and nurturing AI startups, the ecosystem is maturing rapidly. This week, we dive into the government’s latest moves to boost foundational AI development, BharatGen’s multilingual LLM debut, a surging demand for AI talent, and how global tech giants are supporting India’s AI ambitions.
Government Adds More Teams to Build Foundational AI Models
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has selected three additional teams to develop foundational AI models under its IndiaAI initiative, bringing the total to seven teams across the country. These teams—hailing from academia, startups, and R&D labs—will focus on building multimodal models with a strong emphasis on Indian languages and applications relevant to governance, education, and healthcare.
The selection marks a shift toward distributed AI innovation, where multiple models are developed simultaneously by different teams to ensure a competitive and collaborative ecosystem. With funding support and compute access through the IndiaAI compute platform, these teams are expected to accelerate the development of India-specific AI capabilities over the next 12–18 months.
BharatGen: India’s First Multilingual, Government-Funded Foundation Model
India has launched BharatGen, its first government-backed foundation model with multilingual and multimodal capabilities. Developed under the aegis of the IndiaAI mission, BharatGen is designed to support 22 Indian languages and includes generative text, speech, and vision capabilities tailored to Indian contexts.
This is a major leap in creating inclusive AI technologies that reflect India’s linguistic and cultural diversity. BharatGen is expected to power applications in governance, citizen services, and education, and can potentially transform how government interfaces with citizens across language barriers. It also sets the foundation for future open-source innovation and model finetuning for startups and researchers.
IndiaAI Expands Compute Infrastructure with More GPUs
To support this growing ecosystem, the government is ramping up access to compute infrastructure. Under the IndiaAI Mission, the government has initiated the deployment of additional GPU clusters to support foundational model training and experimentation by Indian researchers and developers.
These GPU clusters will be accessible through the IndiaAI compute platform and are intended to democratize access to high-performance computing—previously a major hurdle for Indian AI startups and academic institutions. The expansion not only enables deeper experimentation but also reduces dependence on foreign infrastructure providers.
India’s AI Talent Surge: 1 Million Jobs by 2026
India’s demand for AI professionals is projected to touch one million by 2026, according to a new report. This surge is driven by increased investment in AI across sectors such as finance, healthcare, logistics, and public services—accelerated further by government support for foundational AI development.
However, the report also warns of a growing skill gap in the ecosystem. As startups and enterprises scale AI solutions, the need for trained professionals in areas like data science, machine learning, and model deployment is outpacing supply. Addressing this will require a coordinated effort between industry, academia, and the government.
Indians Among the Most Excited About AI’s Growth
A recent global survey reveals that Indian citizens rank among the most optimistic populations worldwide about AI’s potential. A significant percentage of respondents believe AI will positively impact areas such as healthcare, education, and daily life over the next decade.
This positive sentiment is aligned with India’s policy vision to integrate AI into governance and economic transformation. The optimism among citizens could play a vital role in driving public-private adoption, encouraging startups, and strengthening community-level use of AI in rural and semi-urban areas.
How Google is Helping AI Startups Scale in India
Google is playing a key role in nurturing India’s AI startup ecosystem, offering mentorship, cloud credits, access to compute infrastructure, and support via its Google for Startups Accelerator. The initiative has helped numerous early-stage companies move from prototype to product, with a focus on solving real-world Indian problems.
In addition to technical support, Google is facilitating connections between Indian startups and global investors, partners, and customers. This is critical in scaling AI innovations from pilot stages to national impact—especially in sectors like agriculture, vernacular language services, and healthcare delivery.
Coming Up: AI for India Summit 2025 – Bridging Innovation and Impact
📍 June 28, 2025 | Infosys Science Foundation, Bangalore
While AI continues to dominate global headlines with massive investments and sky-high expectations, real industry adoption in India remains limited. Many businesses are unsure which AI use cases are ready for deployment, and startups often find themselves stuck at the PoC stage, struggling to scale.
To address this gap, AI4India, in collaboration with CSTEP, is hosting the AI for India Summit 2025 – Making Impact in India and Beyond. The summit will bring together industry leaders, deep tech startups, academics, and policymakers for focused conversations to unlock adoption and collaboration.
Startups working in AI and DeepTech can apply here to attend.
Admission is free but limited.
Guest Column - When Agents Speak JSON in a Language We Understand
By Sapan T. Shah
This week’s guest column by Sapan Shah dives into the intersection of AI agents, JSON, and natural language—exploring how structured data communication is being reimagined with the power of large language models. From transforming enterprise workflows to enabling richer interfaces between humans and machines, Shah provides a sharp and engaging take on this emerging trend.
The piece argues that the real magic lies in the convergence of structured protocols and natural language fluency, enabling agents that are both machine-readable and human-understandable. As India ramps up its own agentic infrastructure and LLM capabilities, these insights are especially relevant.
#DataDaan - Donate for a Digital India
Aligned with the IndiaAI Mission and MeitY’s efforts to ensure the availability of AI-usable data, the #DataDaan campaign by AI4India is now live on DataDaan.org. This initiative invites individuals and organizations to contribute valuable datasets, enriching India’s AI ecosystem and driving innovation across sectors. The platform provides a streamlined process for data contribution, ensuring responsible and impactful AI development. Visit DataDaan.org to explore the initiative and be part of this transformative effort.
NOTE: The views expressed by the authors are their own. AI4India as a forum does not endorse any comments on specific brands, products, platforms or companies.
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