India advancing towards sovereign AI eco-system, a transformative step for national AI control: Report

NEW DELHI: India’s efforts to build a sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) stack are gaining momentum, reflecting a transformative approach that prioritizes national and regional control over the entire AI lifecycle, according to a report by Incred Equities.

The report highlighted that the building blocks for Bharat’s sovereign AI stack are already in place, and the build-out could extend beyond data localization to multiple layers across the value chain.

It stated, “Bharat/India sovereign AI stack building blocks in place. Build-out could extend beyond data localization to multiple layers in the value chain.”

It also mentioned that strategic imperatives are driving the adoption of such frameworks globally, with India emerging as an active participant in this movement.

The report emphasized that data and AI sovereignty are taking precedence as AI gains importance not only for enterprises but also for entire economies.

The push for sovereign AI comes from the need to harness the economic and strategic potential of AI while maintaining complete control over how it is built, trained, and deployed.

This approach allows nations to develop and deploy AI capabilities using their own infrastructure, data, and talent.

The report noted that the concept of sovereign AI builds upon the sovereign cloud movement, which focuses on data protection and regulatory compliance, but takes it further by integrating national, economic, and security considerations.

With AI becoming deeply embedded in critical infrastructure such as healthcare, finance, and public services, dependence on foreign providers poses significant risks.

Hence, sovereign AI is being seen as a way to ensure technological independence and capture value from a nation’s own data and intelligence, rather than outsourcing it to global players.

The report also outlined three key drivers for the adoption of sovereign AI: technology independence, control and compliance through robust regulatory frameworks, and localization.

Locally trained AI models that support indigenous languages are expected to play a vital role as AI becomes more democratized and natural language evolves as the new programming paradigm.

It further said that India’s sovereignty stack could expand beyond data localization to include data centers, infrastructure software, integrated hardware design and manufacturing, application software, and semiconductors. (ANI)