Indian startups have a competitive edge, says Krishnan
India is not a closed economy and will follow a dual approach of embracing global innovation while fostering sovereignty by boosting local AI capabilities, S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said in the “IndiaAI in Action” podcast series by the Startup Policy Forum.
“We are not closing ourselves out to anybody who wants to come and invest, especially in technology that is coming in. At the same time, this is one area, we will ensure that we build capacities in India; and we will build it right from the word go,” Krishnan said on 24 Nov, emphasizing India’s open-yet-assertive AI playbook.
Elaborating on the country’s vision, he said, “Whatever we make in India should be globally competitive, and therefore you have to make it in the face of global competition.” This dual strategy signals India’s commitment to international competitiveness while shoring up indigenous strengths.
Asked if policy would create an advantage for local startups, Krishnan clarified the government’s incentives, “The government incentivises compute infrastructure located within India with lower rates and subsidies to ensure data remains sovereign and that Indian startups have a competitive edge. We are offering India’s data sets for use by Indian companies, creating an opportunity for innovation, that is both globally competitive and rooted in local context.”
He further stressed, “India’s data, computing, and AI models will stay within India, creating a foundation for sovereign AI capabilities, while ensuring openness to global collaboration.” Krishnan explained this approach draws on the IT revolution’s foundational lesson—world-class infrastructure as a driver for innovation. “We are working on building the best of infrastructure and the best of models in India,” he said, in conversation with Shweta Rajpal Kohli, President & CEO, Startup Policy Forum.
Addressing capacity and readiness, Krishnan pointed out, “I don’t think India as a country has been slow on the uptake on this at all. We now have more than 38,000 GPUs which have come up on offer; it’s not that we are denying anybody the resources.”
On regulation, Krishnan reaffirmed the government’s pro-innovation stance: “We are watching the situation very closely and standing ready, in case we need to legislate.”
He also referenced the Prime Minister’s outlook. “The Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself personally believes that we need to approach AI with a positive mindset in terms of the good that it can do and what it can deliver in terms of enhanced productivity for the economy and approach it from that perspective rather than from a sense of fear and a sense of what can go wrong.”
“IndiaAI in Action”, launched by the Startup Policy Forum in collaboration with the Government of India’s IndiaAI Mission, showcases India’s AI ecosystem and the government’s vision. It brings forward stories of Indian startups leveraging AI across domains such as fintech, healthcare, and generative AI, highlighting how global engagement and domestic capability-building run in parallel.
The podcast lays the ground for the ‘India AI Impact Summit 2026’, an event slated to unite global thought leaders and help shape the trajectory of responsible and inclusive AI globally.
Startup Policy Forum (SPF) is an industry body for new-age companies representing 60+ of India’s largest and fastest-growing startups with a combined valuation of over US$90 billion. Leading startups across diverse sectors, including fintech, consumer, manufacturing, deeptech and AI are members of SPF. This includes Groww, Razorpay, Ather Energy, Pine Labs, PhysicsWallah, ixigo, Cars24, Mobikwik, BharatPe, Cardekho, Zerodha, Swiggy, invideo, Digantara among others. Fiinews.com
