Learning from DeepSeek, honing India's AI strategy

INDIA MUST PUT ITS WEIGHT BEHIND OPEN SOURCE INNOVATION IN AI. THIS WILL HELP INDIAN STARTUPS COMPETE, WHILE CLOSED SOURCE AI WILL DEEPEN DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN AI SYSTEMS

- Anirudh Suri

The first two months of 2025 have been eventful in the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In January, the release of DeepSeek's RL model shook the AI world. Then in February, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, co-chaired the Paris AI Action Summit where United States (US) Vice President JD Vance emphasized the geopolitical and security implications of the AI race. Finally, PM Modi's recent visit to the US saw the launch of the re-branded TRUST initiative for US-India cooperation on critical technologies such as AI.

What do these developments imply for India's quest for AI leadership? The discussion in India in the aftermath of the shake-up caused by DeepSeek has been on ensuring the availability of AI chips and accelerating attempts to build a sovereign Large Language Model (LLM). The government has announced that India will be developing its own LLM within the next few months and that the National AI Mission has already made over 10,000 GPUs available to startups and researchers. India AI Mission also put out a call for proposals to build foundational AI models, including LLMs and Small-Language Models (SLMs).

While the quick movement on this front is laudable, these are not the only—or even the most important—action items to prioritize post DeepSeek's success. Sure enough, DeepSeek has demonstrated its ability as a competitor to ChatGPT and others at a much lower training cost than its American counterparts. This is an encouraging development for a country like India that champions frugal innovation.