AI Blueprint for Strategic Autonomy

Date: 19 April 2025

A workshop was conducted on 19 April 2025, focussed on the role of India in a world that is going to depend heavily on artificial intelligence. Currently, in India, conversations are happening at a small scale such as WhatsApp groups. This workshop sought to initiate a dialogue between as many voices as possible from academia, industry, the startup ecosystem, and the Government. Some of the experts present were Kris Gopalakrishnan (Chairman, Axilor Ventures), Govindan Rangarajan (Director, IISc), Mukesh Bansal (Co-founder and CEO, Curefit), Shivkumar Kalyanaraman (CEO, Anusandhan National Research Foundation), and Neelkanth Mishra (Chief Economist, Axis Bank).

An introduction to the need for an AI strategy was followed by 11 talks and four panel discussions. Some of the topics that were discussed were:

  • Can we produce AI that not only serves India but also the world?
  • Creation of world-class, focussed research organisations in areas such as scientific machine learning and analog computing.
  • How do we create an ecosystem for a globally competitive startup?
  • The need to build an export-driven industry.
  • Building loyal agents that have certifiability and auditability.
  • The regulatory environment: the role of the Government as an enabler, by setting a level playing field but tilted towards domestic industries.
  • AI initiatives and the use of AI as a tool in research at IISc.
  • How can venture capitalists support academic research.
  • The Anusandhan National Research Foundation and the IndiaAI Mission.