India’s AI Leap: How Bharat is Emerging as the Next Global AI Powerhouse

May 30, 2025 Techelius Newsroom 0 Comments

🌍 Introduction

In 2020, India was considered an AI underdog, lagging behind the US, China, and Europe in deep tech innovation. Fast forward to 2025, and the narrative has dramatically shifted.

With the launch of IndiaAI Mission, new government-backed LLMs trained on Indian languages, and an explosive startup ecosystem, India is quickly positioning itself as the AI capital of the Global South.

🇮🇳 IndiaAI Mission: A Turning Point

In early 2024, the Government of India launched the IndiaAI Mission with a ₹10,300 crore (~$1.2 billion) budget. The mission focuses on:

Building indigenous large language models (LLMs) trained on Indic languages
Creating AI-specific data centers across Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities
Supporting AI research in public institutions like IITs, IIITs, and IISc
Launching an AI computing infrastructure with 10,000+ GPUs

Within a year, India has unveiled BharatGPT, a multilingual model supporting over 22 Indian languages, including Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, and Bengali — unlocking AI access for millions.

🚀 Startup Boom: From Bengaluru to Bhubaneswar

AI-driven startups in India have exploded in 2025. According to Nasscom, over 3,000 AI startups now operate in the country, with $6.8 billion in funding raised in the past 18 months alone.

Notable players include:

Sarvam AI – Focused on Indian language LLMs and enterprise AI APIs
Krutrim – Backed by Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal, building India-centric AI hardware
Karya – A social impact startup training AI with ethically sourced, rural-labeled datasets
nCore AI – Integrating generative AI in gaming and entertainment

These startups are not just replicating Western models — they’re innovating for Indian realities, including rural tech, agri-tech, and regional language use cases.

🧠 AI for Bharat: Bridging the Digital Divide

What makes India’s AI journey unique is its focus on inclusion. Projects powered by BharatGPT and allied models are enabling:

Voice-based digital services for farmers in local dialects
Automated translation of government documents and court records
AI tutors for low-income students using WhatsApp and Telegram
Healthcare chatbots in local languages for village clinics

This grassroots impact is making AI not just a luxury for coders — but a lifeline for millions.

🤝 Global Collaborations & Strategic Alliances

India has become a key player in international AI diplomacy:

Signed AI ethics & cooperation agreements with France, UAE, and Japan
Working with OpenAI and Google DeepMind on low-resource language training
Participating in G20 AI Safety and Governance initiatives

The US-India Critical & Emerging Tech (iCET) Partnership now includes joint ventures in AI hardware and chip design, signaling deeper tech alignment between the two democracies.

⚖️ Challenges Ahead

India’s AI rise is not without hurdles:

Brain drain still affects top-tier AI talent
Data privacy laws remain under development
GPU and compute access is limited compared to China or the US
AI regulation must balance innovation and ethical safeguards

The government has proposed the Digital India Act, expected to define India’s regulatory stance on AI ethics, bias, and data localization.

📝 Editor’s Note

India’s AI story is no longer one of catching up — it’s about leading differently. By blending scale, talent, language diversity, and policy vision, India is setting the blueprint for ethical, inclusive, and scalable AI in the Global South.

While Silicon Valley may build for the top billion, Bharat is building for the next five.

✅ Key Takeaways