Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys and the architect of Aadhaar, stated at the Global Technology Summit on Friday that India is well-positioned in the global competition for artificial intelligence (AI) and is currently concentrating on growing its domestic AI programs. Although India may not have created large-scale AI models as some other nations have, Nilekani stressed that important advancements are already being made.
“Indians should not worry about not having developed large AI models like some other countries. We should not be losing sleep because somebody has not built any AI models,” he said. “The Indian AI mission is active, and now the focus must shift to scaling it up.” He underscored that the current AI wave marks a major shift from earlier technology revolutions. “For the first time, we are placing our trust in non-human intelligence. In the past, technology followed predictable rules; now, we’re expecting machines to make decisions. That’s a major leap of faith,” he noted.
Nandan Nilekani’s AI warning for ‘Every day life’
Even while AI is exciting, Nilekani cautioned that it won’t be easy to incorporate the technology into routine procedures. “Adopting AI is not going to be easy. It requires just as much, if not more, effort than previous technologies,” he said. “You have to reengineer workflows in both enterprises and government to make AI truly effective. It demands extensive upgrades, though the core principles still apply.”
Nonetheless, he thinks India has a competitive edge because to its digital revolution over the last 15 years.
“Given our current tech infrastructure, the gap between global AI developments and India’s progress is narrowing rapidly,” he said. “Enterprise AI will be a long journey, and public sector adoption will be even tougher due to structural limitations.”
India to be home to 1 million startups by 2035
Additionally, Nilekani presented an aspirational vision for the startup scene in India. By 2035, he said, there may be one million startups in the nation, a sharp increase from the 2,000 that existed in 2015.
“From 2,000 startups in 2015 to 150,000 today—we’re in the midst of a virtuous cycle,” he explained. “Startups solve real-world problems, scale up, go public, and spark the creation of more startups. This cycle is accelerating innovation across sectors like climate, energy, and space.”
He praised India’s expanding private innovation in fields that have historically been run by the government, citing the “fabulous” space story as an example.
Nilekani also went over some of the turning points in India’s development of digital public infrastructure. These include the debut of the BHIM app, the demonetization of currency, the disruption of the telecom industry by Reliance Jio, the expansion of Aadhaar to one billion individuals, and the introduction of UPI.
“These were not overnight developments. They were years in the making,” he said. “You need patience to lay the foundation. Once it’s in place, transformation can happen rapidly—and now, we’re more prepared than ever.”
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