On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, on January 22, struck a confident note on how India is being viewed by global technology and industry leaders.
From AI companies and chipmakers to investors tracking infrastructure and energy, Vaishnaw, who holds key portfolios in the government including Electronics and IT, Information and Broadcasting and Railways, said the mood around India was "very positive".
In a wide-ranging conversation with Moneycontrol, the minister spoke about why global AI leaders see India as central to their expansion, how India's semiconductor design ecosystem is already embedded in some of the world's most complex chips and more.
Edited excerpts
Yesterday, we managed to briefly get a word from President Trump, where he said that he has a lot of respect for Prime Minister Modi. Importantly, he also said that we will have a good trade deal. There has been a lot of uncertainty in India on when this deal is happening. What message does this (Trump's comment) send out?
Vaishnaw: So, our engagement with the US is very consistent. Every point which needs to be discussed is being discussed under the leadership of our Cabinet Minister Piyush Goyal and our External Affairs Minister and Finance Minister.
I think there is very good understanding between the two countries and it wouldn't be proper for me to kind of speculate on when the deal will actually happen, but the engagement is very good.
But it does send out a positive signal, doesn't it?
Vaishnaw: It does.
The way he praised the relationship with Prime Minister Modi.
Vaishnaw: Definitely, and when we look at the response from the industry, practically every company, every group which has met us during this World Economic Forum, everybody is very positive, very optimistic about relationships with India.
The entire semiconductor industry wants to have a very big presence in India. All the big players of AI world, they want to have a very significant presence in India. So, the optimism and the enthusiasm about India is real.
You have held meetings with some big names from the world of AI and semiconductors from Demis Hassabis to Dario Amodei to Jensen Huang and others. What is the sense that you are getting from them in terms of the opportunity they see in India?
Vaishnaw: Three things. First, a very big source of talent. A lot of R&D and innovation is going on in India. Second, practically every big AI player looks at India as the country which will dominate the application, the services and solution layers. Everybody wants to partner with India to be able to provide the AI-based services to the world.
The third is about semiconductor. Getting optimised silicon for your model and getting the silicon for the Edge, is going to be the key defining feature going forward. And our design ecosystem today is seen as a major enabler of that. We have some of the most complex chips designed in India, whether it is for NVIDIA, Google, Intel or for AMD etc.
In the case of the semiconductor industry, the satisfaction that people have expressed is very significant. We had a roundtable with practically every major semiconductor industry participants and people are really happy with the progress just in four short years.
The first commercial production should start in February last week. Micron's CEO also met and he committed that in February itself he'll start the first commercial production. Three more plants are in pilot production already.
So, this is something which people are very happy. Our Prime Minister's focus on developing these leading cutting-edge industries for setting that foundation for future that is being recognised very well.
When Moneycontrol spoke to Demis briefly here and also Meta's Joel Kaplan on what India's AI strategy should be their take was that India should focus on the applied AI layer. But we have taken a hybrid approach given that we are going to have 10 to 12 sovereign models. So, what do you think is the ideal strategy here?
Vaishnaw: Given the fact that today we are on the verge of becoming the third largest economy and given the talent that we have and given the diversity that we have, it makes sense for us to work on all the five layers.
The entire IT industry has pivoted towards the application layer. It is very important to have our sovereign models because today 50 billion parameter model does practically 95 per cent of the things that trillions of parameter model would be doing.
So, that incremental value in going from billion to trillion parameters is not something which should stop us from developing our own sovereign models. So, we should work in that sovereign models. That's what we are doing.
The infra and the third layer, the chip layer is very important because custom silicon will become the norm in the future and our design capabilities and now the manufacturing capabilities which are developing is very important for the entire world and for us.
The fourth layer is the infra layer. Already $70 billion investment is happening and we expect that during the AI summit (India AI Impact Summit) another $50 to $70 or maybe even $80 billion dollar investment should be coming.
Practically everybody who has met me, they are looking at very high numbers. I wouldn't be surprised if we get another $100 billion dollars investment.
Are you saying this will be announced during the India AI summit? $100 billion worth of investment?
Hopefully, yes.
..and from semiconductor?
Vaishnaw: From practically the entire technology ecosystem and of course the final layer energy which is where again the world has taken note of Prime Minister's reforms and how he has opened up the nuclear energy sector and a lot of innovation is happening in the energy sector because today there are teams which are working on developing a nuclear power plant in a container.
So, that micro reactor concept is also picking up. We met a company which is basically working in that direction. So, for a country like us, it makes sense to work on all the five layers.
While you've been clear that India should have a full-stack approach, which part of that journey still worries you the most where more work needs to be done?
Vaishnaw: I think on models we must work more. The 12 models which are coming up are a very comprehensive set of models. They are going to meet practically almost all the needs that we have but we must put a lot of more effort in research and development.
So, the next big breakthrough will come either from math or engineering which basically means that there will be some new way of computing, algorithm or a new way of thinking. Every model is basically math, right?
Yeah.
Vaishnaw: Basically a combination of math and engineering. Some new math will come certainly. That's what most people feel. How do we do what we know – what we know today? How do we do it better? That's the engineering part of it. So, we need to put our resources and our great minds on both the factors for that next big breakthrough in models.
So, out of these 12 models, how many you think will be ready at the AI Impact Summit or will it be Sarvam first and the others?
Vaishnaw: About six, maybe seven will be ready.
To showcase at the India AI Impact Summit.
Vaishnaw: Yes.
Okay, any names that you can share apart from Sarvam?
Vaishnaw: Sarvam, of course, is in very advanced stage. They are close to 120 billion parameters. So, that is like in terms of capabilities that would be 96-97 per cent of the frontier models from the world.
And then there are very good models based on text-to-speech and speech-to-speech. Those are very important in our context because Indian tradition, our heritage, our culture has been very oral, very audio-based, very hearing-based. That is the way our culture and our civilization has been.
So, that is why we put a lot of focus on models which are not text-based but they are more on hearing-based and speaking-based.
There is also this idea of hosting a kind of an autumn Davos…
Vaishnaw: Oh yes.
..in India that has come up here. If that were to happen, how would you want it to be different apart from the weather and the snow?
Vaishnaw: So, the idea has come because today we are the fastest growing major economy and the consistency of our growth and our Prime Minister's clear focus on reforms is being noticed by everybody.
And that is why, given the fact that now we are such a significant economy and such a rapidly growing economy, the world would like to come to India as they have come to Europe or to China. They would like to come to India. So, that is the thought behind Autumn Davos. I had a lot of good discussions with the leadership of World Economic Forum, yes.
So, you think it will happen in 2026?
Vaishnaw: I think the realistic thing would be to target something in 2027.
And which city?
Vaishnaw: It is very preliminary at this point of time. And I think we should do a lot more work before we make any announcements.
Could you give update on when the gaming law will be implemented and what are the government's plans to promote game developers in the country? Because the rules will have to be released for the law to be kicked in officially.
Vaishnaw: So, the way our constitutional structure is, the moment law is passed by the parliament, the substantive part of it comes in, the operative part comes through the rules. So, the rules are ready and they should be published another 15 days.
Because we have had a lot of consultation with the industry, with financial sector, with regulatory bodies, with authorities in the law enforcement sector. We have had tremendous amount of consultation.
The video of you articulating India's AI strategy and also saying that India is not a tier 2 AI country, it's definitely in the tier 1 group. Where did that come from? Did it at some level come from your own background as an IITian? You know, you're an engineer at heart and maybe that came to the fore. What was running through your mind when you crafted that response?
Vaishnaw: No, I just stated the facts, nothing else. And whatever people say…
Was it the IIT Kanpur engineer coming to the fore?
Vaishnaw: Whatever people say, the world is definitely recognising Prime Minister's leadership in developing the DPI, developing the telecom. You move around in Europe, you'll find 5G is a very patchy thing. (Whereas in India) 90 per cent of the country is covered under 5G. We have our own telecom stack now. Within four years, we have semiconductor manufacturing coming up, and running. So that confidence is there in the world. Some people don't understand that.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
Find the best of Al News in one place, specially curated for you every weekend.
Stay on top of the latest tech trends and biggest startup news.
