At the recent Business Standard Manthan Summit in New Delhi, experts underscored the urgent need for India to build its own sovereign foundational AI models and strengthen data sovereignty to reduce dependency on foreign platforms and technologies. The panel included Dr. S K Shukla, Director IIIT-H along with representatives from Mozilla and the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Dr. Shukla emphasised that AI should evolve into a digital public infrastructure, serving as a base for sector-specific and organisation-level models, rather than relying on proprietary systems like ChatGPT or Gemini trained on Indian data. The discussions also highlighted India’s demographic and linguistic diversity as a key strength that, when harnessed, can benefit AI solutions across the Global South. Panelists noted that achieving AI sovereignty requires coordinated efforts across policy, research, industry, and skills development, alongside investments in computer infrastructure, multilingual capabilities, and strategic partnerships.

Sampige Semiconductors pvt., founded by semiconductor entrepreneur Parag Naik, signed a MoU with BharatGen Technology Foundation to advance India’s sovereign AI ecosystem through co-development of India-centric AI semiconductor chipsets, hardware-aware models, and a unified software stack under the Make in India framework. The MoU was signed in the presence of Principal Scientific Advisor to the Govt of India, Dr Ajay Kr Sood, and Dr Parvinder Maini, Scientific Secretary at the Office of PSA. Also present were Parag Naik, CEO of Sampige, Rishi Bal, CEO of BharatGen, Prof. G Ramakrishnan, Founding Board member, BharatGen and Institute Chair Professor, IITB, Bharatgen consortium members Prof. Priyesh Shukla from IIIT-H, and Vice President of Bharatgen, Pankaj Singh. BharatGen Technology Foundation led by IITB, it brings together a consortium of India’s top academic institutions IITK, IITM, IIT KGP, IITH, IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIM Indore and IIITD to collectively push the boundaries of generative AI and build a thriving, India-centric AI ecosystem.

Even as AI becomes ubiquitous in our lives, there are significant concerns and fears about the possible futures. Seeking to allay such fears especially in the context of education, Prof. Raj Reddy, founding chairman of IIIT-H and Turing award winner addressed IIIT-H faculty and called out for a manifesto for education in the AI era. What happens to education when every student carries an “Einstein in your pocket”? That was the provocative starting point of Dr. Raj Reddy’s wide-ranging and deeply thought-provoking address to the faculty. With characteristic clarity, he laid out a future in which AI is not just a tool, but a constant intellectual companion, reshaping what we teach, how we teach, and even why we teach. “The current dogma,” he began, “is that AI will change education as we know it. There won’t be a need for professors. There won’t be a need for teachers. There won’t be a need for classrooms.” add that he does not believe classrooms will vanish overnight but admitted that change is inevitable. The real question, he argued, is how institutions prepare for that transition.