India should have its own AI stack, says Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran

Natarajan Chandrasekaran

Tata Sons and Tata Group Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran has issued a call for the country to develop "India AI stack" to benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

Speaking at the second edition of Mumbai Tech Week, Chandrasekharan laid out a blueprint for this AI stack, which he said should be built on four key pillars.

Firstly, the foundational layer that would provide the core computing infrastructure and data repositories that AI systems can leverage. Ensuring secure access to vast amount of Indian data will be critical, he added.

“We should use Gen AI and the India stack and the platforms that we build to have a separate track to focus on creating millions of other products, not necessarily in AI and tech, but in application of AI for every industry,” Chandrasekaran said on February 28 at the Jio Convention Centre in Mumbai.

Secondly, the basic research layer. Chandrasekaran highlighted the need to build strong AI research capabilities within the country, to create the knowledge foundation for advanced applications.

Thirdly, the capability layer. Building on the foundational infrastructure, this layer would focus on developing the tools, models, and developer kits required to build robust AI-powered solutions.

And finally, the governance layer. Culminating it all, this layer would establish the policies and regulations to ensure AI is deployed in alignment with Indian values and priorities.

"Our government has made the right steps by creating the India AI mission… and many schemes that are coming in place, but I think it's so important to realise what we need in how to build a sovereign AI capability,” Chandrasekaran explained.

The Tata Sons chairman highlighted India's unique advantages in building such an AI stack - its vast data resources, successful digital public platforms, frugal innovation mindset, and immense potential to solve critical problems in healthcare, education, agriculture, and governance.

He also said that AI is a major imperative. Cautioning that countries that will lead AI will not only export AI, but will become the future leaders. “Sovereign AI is very important. If we don't develop sovereign AI capabilities, we have a major risk of having all our activities.”