What India needs to do to compete with US, China on AI development? Sanjeev Bikhchandani explains

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder and executive vice chairman of Info Edge (India)

India needs data sovereignty given its vast population and smartphone user base, and the government must help direct limited capital toward AI development, as the country lacks large private entities capable of funding major AI initiatives, said Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder and executive vice chairman of Info Edge (India) Ltd.

Bikhchandani stressed local data should benefit the country and domestic entities should own AI built with Indian data. “The next 2-3 years are critical for establishing this ownership,” he said in a post on X.

The remarks were made in a podcast conversation with NatStrat, an independent, not-for-profit centre for research on strategic and security issues.

Bikhchandani argued that the development of artificial intelligence requires a “small number” of highly skilled engineers and not massive workforces. He pointed out that ChatGPT was built by “just a few dozen engineers”.

The co-founder of Ashoka University also said that core development of the tech requires elite talent and secondary work may need larger teams.

Bigger role for the government

Bikhchandani said India lacks large private entities who can fund major AI initiatives and therefore “sovereign AI efforts are necessary” for India.

He noted that without proper investment in domestic AI development, India “risks missing the bus” for this “transformative technology”.

Bikhchandani listed three steps that India should do-- a 10 to 30 year investment perspective for AI development, Indian LLMs to be categorised as development project, like the construction of a dam, and building of AI infrastructure, similar to digital payment infrastructure.