FOCUS ON APPLICATION-LED AI

SURVEY PITCHES FOR CALIBRATED APPROACH OVER CAPITAL-INTENSIVE MODELS

- FE BUREAU

THE ECONOMIC SURVEY has pitched artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for solving real economic and governance challenges rather than a technology race centred on building large, capital-intensive models, stating that India’s advantage lies in pragmatic, application-led deployment rather than scale alone.

In a dedicated chapter on AI, the Survey says India should leverage its late-mover position to adopt AI in a calibrated manner that aligns with its economic structure, institutional capacity and resource constraints. Rather than competing with advanced economies in developing large foundation models that require massive compute power and energy consumption, the Survey has advocated for a focus on low-cost, high-impact applications tailored to domestic needs.