India can develop sovereign AI models for national needs: IIT Jammu Dir

IIT Jammu Director Manoj Singh Gaur stated that India has the potential to develop sovereign AI models for national needs, leveraging its success with digital infrastructure like Aadhaar and UPI. He stressed the need for homegrown, contextual models.

Developing Sovereign AI for National Needs

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jammu Founding Director Manoj Singh Gaur on Thursday said that India has the potential to develop sovereign Artificial Intelligence (AI) models "tailored for national needs" and leveraging lessons from its digital infrastructure.

Speaking to ANI at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 here, Professor Gaur highlighted the transformative impact of India's digital public infrastructure initiatives and cited "Aadhaar and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as examples." "This is an opportunity for us to replicate what we did as a digital public infrastructure in the form of Aadhaar and UPI, which nobody thought about, but at scale it happened on the ground," he said.

Gaur also stressed that India's AI models should be homegrown and contextually relevant, rather than fully reliant on Western centralised frameworks. "The opportunity here is that we can create our own models, which we will. The models which are contextual to India and they are not entirely dependent on the Western centralised model, but they are our own. They are sovereign model, sovereign technology for our use, data for public good or governance for public good," he added.

India Poised for Global AI Leadership

Further, IIT Ropar Director hailed India as a leader-in-making in Artificial Intelligence, stating that the country will be using AI for the "good of the whole of humanity." Ahuja referred to French President Emmanuel Macron's remarks about India's success in the digital sector to affirm that India will emerge as a global leader in AI. "India is going to lead the AI world. Whatever we are going to develop in India, we will deploy it in the whole world. We are working for the good of the whole of humanity. President Macron told the audience that India has proven with its digital avatar what they have created, which nobody believed, but everybody believed what India has done when it comes to digital transactions or in that sphere. We will be the top country in the world when it comes to AI," he told ANI.

About the India AI Impact Summit 2026

The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is being held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. It started on February 16 and will run up to February 20. The Summit brought together government policymakers, industry AI experts, academicians, technology innovators and civil society from across the world at the national capital to advance global discussions on artificial intelligence. (ANI)

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