India's AI Future: Vishal Sikka's Urgent Call to Build, Not Just Consume
In the global arena of artificial intelligence, a new race has begun—one that will define the economic and cultural landscapes of the 21st century. It's not just about using AI; it's about creating it. This sentiment was powerfully articulated by AI entrepreneur and visionary Vishal Sikka at CNBC-TV18’s Global Leadership Summit 2025. Sikka, who recognized the potential of OpenAI long before ChatGPT became a household name, delivered a stark warning and a compelling challenge to India: stop being a passive consumer of AI and start building your own foundational models. This isn't merely a suggestion; it's a strategic imperative for securing India's AI future.
AI-generated image illustrating: A digital illustration of India Gate with glowing circuits, symbolizing India's AI future and the push to build foundational models.
The world is rapidly being reshaped by large language models (LLMs) and generative AI, with a few key players in the West dominating the narrative and the infrastructure. Sikka's message resonates with a growing consensus among global tech leaders that true sovereignty in the digital age requires technological self-reliance. For a nation with the talent, scale, and ambition of India, the choice is clear: either become dependent on foreign AI platforms, shaping its society around external values and priorities, or forge its own path by creating technology that reflects its unique culture, languages, and challenges. This article delves into Sikka's prescient advice, exploring why building sovereign AI is non-negotiable for India's progress.
A Visionary's Warning: The Credibility of Vishal Sikka
To understand the weight of this advice, one must first understand the advisor. Vishal Sikka is not just another voice in the tech chorus. As the former CEO of Infosys, he steered one of India's largest IT companies toward a future centered on automation and artificial intelligence. Now, as the founder of Vianai Systems, an enterprise AI platform, he is at the cutting edge of AI implementation. His credibility is further burnished by his early interest in OpenAI, an investment of foresight that demonstrates a deep understanding of where the industry was headed long before the public caught on.
When Sikka speaks, it is from a position of experience and deep insight into the technological currents shaping our world. His warning is not born from abstract theory but from a practical understanding of AI's power dynamics. He sees a future where nations that control foundational AI models will hold immense influence over the global economy, security, and culture. His call to action for India is a plea to recognize this reality and act decisively to secure its place as a leader, not a follower, in this transformative era.
From Passive Consumer to Active Creator: What It Means
Sikka’s central theme revolves around a critical distinction: the difference between consuming AI and creating it. For years, India has excelled as a global hub for IT services and software development, adeptly using technologies built elsewhere to solve problems for global clients. This has built a formidable tech industry. However, the age of generative AI demands a fundamental shift in this paradigm. Being a mere consumer means relying on models like GPT-4, Claude, or Gemini—powerful tools, but ones that are built, trained, and controlled by foreign entities.
This dependency creates several vulnerabilities. It means Indian businesses and consumers are subject to the pricing, terms of service, and inherent biases of these external platforms. A foundational model is the base layer of intelligence upon which countless applications are built. By building its own, India can create a sovereign AI ecosystem. This move from consumption to creation is about owning the engine, not just driving the car. It is about setting the architectural standards for India's AI future, ensuring it is aligned with national priorities.
Why Building Foundational Models is Non-Negotiable for India
The call to build sovereign AI is not about technological vanity; it is rooted in pressing economic, cultural, and strategic needs. The long-term benefits of developing indigenous foundational models far outweigh the significant challenges involved, positioning the nation for decades of growth and influence.
Economic Sovereignty and Innovation
Relying on foreign AI models is akin to outsourcing the nation's core intellectual infrastructure. It creates a perpetual outflow of capital and data. By developing its own models, India can foster a vibrant domestic AI economy. This would spur a new generation of startups and developers to build applications tailored for the Indian market, from hyperlocal logistics to personalized education. Creating this sovereign infrastructure is a strategic play to become a global tech powerhouse, much like how Johor's AI ambitions are designed to establish a new regional tech hub. An Indian foundational model would be a national asset, driving innovation across every sector and reducing dependency on global tech giants.
Cultural and Linguistic Nuance
One of the most profound arguments for a sovereign AI is the preservation and promotion of India's immense diversity. Models trained predominantly on English-language internet data cannot possibly capture the rich tapestry of India's 22 official languages and hundreds of dialects. They lack the cultural context, idioms, and historical nuances that are essential for effective communication and service delivery. An Indian foundational model, trained on diverse Indian data, could power services that truly understand and serve the entire population. This technological capability to bridge linguistic divides is a monumental step, echoing the broader ambition of how AI in language is transcending civilizational barriers on a global scale.
Data Security and National Interest
In an age of data-driven geopolitics, national security is inextricably linked to data sovereignty. When Indian companies, government agencies, and citizens use foreign AI platforms, they risk exposing sensitive information to external servers and jurisdictions. This could have serious implications for everything from corporate espionage to national defense. Building a domestic AI infrastructure ensures that critical data remains within India's borders, managed under its own laws. This control is vital for bolstering national security frameworks, a goal that aligns with the development of advanced defensive tools like the AI-powered systems from ThreatBooks that boost cyber defense. A sovereign AI is a shield in the digital realm.
The Path Forward: Tackling Challenges and Seizing Opportunities
Embarking on the journey to create foundational models is a monumental undertaking, fraught with challenges. However, for a nation of India's scale and talent, these obstacles are not insurmountable. They represent opportunities to build new capabilities and solidify its position as a global tech leader.
The Herculean Task of Compute Power
The single greatest barrier to building large-scale AI models is access to immense computational power. This requires thousands of high-end GPUs working in concert for months, a resource that is both expensive and in high demand globally. This is where strategic public-private partnerships become essential. The Indian government and private sector must invest heavily in building out national AI compute infrastructure. Understanding the market dynamics is key, especially considering Nvidia's AI dominance in the hardware space. A national strategy to procure and build this capacity is the first and most critical step in realizing India's AI future.
Cultivating Talent and Fostering Research
While India has a vast pool of software engineers, developing foundational models requires a specialized skill set in AI research, machine learning engineering, and distributed systems. Nurturing this talent requires revamping university curricula, funding advanced research labs, and creating an environment that encourages top minds to tackle these grand challenges at home. The government's role in funding and fostering this R&D ecosystem cannot be overstated.
The Promise of Specialized Models
India's strategy doesn't have to be about creating a single, monolithic competitor to GPT-4 immediately. A more pragmatic approach could involve developing a suite of specialized models tailored to key sectors of the Indian economy. Imagine a model finely tuned for Indian agriculture, another for delivering healthcare diagnostics in regional languages, and a third for navigating the complexities of Indian law. This approach can deliver targeted value quickly and build momentum. These specialized AIs could revolutionize sectors, much like how Spike MCP is unleashing AI-driven health solutions or how AI is being used in niche scientific fields like predicting volcanic eruptions. This focused strategy allows for innovation that is both impactful and uniquely Indian.
Conclusion: Answering the Call to Shape India's AI Future
Vishal Sikka’s message is a clarion call. It is a challenge to India's policymakers, technologists, and business leaders to lift their gaze from the immediate and focus on the foundational. The choice to build, rather than just consume, AI is not merely a technological one; it is a declaration of intent about the kind of future India wants to build for its 1.4 billion citizens. It is about ensuring that the most transformative technology of our time serves India's interests, reflects its values, and unlocks its boundless potential.
The path is difficult, requiring unprecedented investment, collaboration, and long-term vision. But the cost of inaction is far greater: a future of digital dependency and missed opportunity. By embracing this challenge, India can not only secure its own digital sovereignty but also emerge as a leader and a distinct voice in the global AI landscape, offering the world models that are not just intelligent, but also inclusive, diverse, and uniquely Indian. The journey to define India's AI future starts now, with the audacious goal of creation.