India's Tech Ambitions

As China's low-cost AI breakthrough reshapes global competition, India must rethink its approach to innovation challenges in the race for technological prowess

- LATHA JISHNU

China's technological breakthroughs tend to create headlines, and as they burst onto the scene, a befuddled world is usually asking how it was done. But nothing has been as spectacular as the emergence of the DeepSeek artificial intelligence (AI) model that was developed by a young hedge fund manager on a slender budget in Hangzhou and is just two years old. We are familiar with the wide swathe of destruction it unleashed in the US, shaving off nearly US$1 trillion from the market value of the big guns like AI Open, Nvidia and a host of other players. The shock and awe worldwide were unparalleled, prompting the head of a stellar Big Tech company to hail the debut of the Chinese start-up's R1 model—R stands for reasoning—as "impressive." Another termed it "the most amazing and impressive breakthrough" he had ever seen.