Basic technology R&D: Let's wake up before it's too late

India's future in AI and in other fast-emerging technologies depends on our will to invest in the unknown

- Nilesh Jasani

Recently, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company unveiled a language model brimming with innovations that make it 15-20 times cheaper than some of the best models globally, while offering comparable capabilities. Within days, another Chinese firm announced a model capable of handling inputs 20-32 times larger than any current global counterpart—equivalent to processing a 16,000-page pdf file. These developments pose a sobering question for us: why aren't such innovations emerging in India?

The AI revolution is unfolding before our eyes, with everyone at a similar starting line in model development a few quarters ago. On paper, we were well-placed to lead it. The country boasts of a high number of AI engineers and programmers, a thriving tech ecosystem and a burgeoning pool of risk capital. In model development, we had no historical handicap (as in chip-making). The formulas were known to model makers in the US as well as China, Korea, Europe and West Asia.

Yet, the Generative AI landscape in India remains largely derivative. While some firms fine-tune open-source models for Indian languages or specific applications, foundational breakthroughs—akin to GPT-4, Claude or DeepSeek—are notably absent, and few seem worried. This raises critical questions about our approach to all sorts of fundamental research, not just GenAI model development.