India's AI future needs political will, national commitment: CEA

CEA V Anantha Nageswaran, at the AI Impact Summit, stressed that India can align machine intelligence with human abundance through political will and national commitment. He called for a 'Team India effort' for growth and social stability.

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Monday emphasised that India can be one of the largest societies where machine learning and human abundance can reinforce, rather than undermine, each other. Speaking at the "Future of Employability and AI" session of the AI Impact Summit 2026,Nageswaran asserted that the change will not happen by accident but will require political will, state capacity, and national commitment to align technological adoption with mass employability. He also stressed on the importance of a joint effort into the matter, adding that which should include the private sector, acadamics and the policy makers.

Aligning AI with Mass Employability

"India can become the first large society where human abundance and machine intelligence reinforce, and not undermine, each other. This will not happen by drift; this will require an urgent say. It will require political will, it will require state capacity, and it will require a clear national commitment to aligning technological adoption with mass employability. It has to be a Team India effort, including the private sector and academics, as well as policy makers. The window is still open, but it is not indefinite," Nageswaran said.

Nageswaran further said that from India's perspective, the debate is not related to future of work, but it is a decision about the future of growth, social stability, and cohesion. He also highlighted the importance of change and reform in education, pedagogy, and the delivery of foundational skills.

A Decision for Growth and Social Stability

"For India, this is not a debate about the future of work; it is a decision about the future of growth, social stability, and cohesion. We must act, and act now. The first step begins with the reform of our education, pedagogy, and the teaching and imparting of foundational skills. That is where the path to co-creating prosperity with AI and employability in the age of AI begins, and that is where the path begins," said Nageswaran.

Startups as the Engine for Employment

Meanwhile, Founder Chairman and CEO of Sampark Foundation and former CEO of HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayyar, pressed on the importance of creating employment in the Indian IT industry while emphasising its profit-driven mindset. He stated that employment can only be generated from mass-scale startups, which is currently being done by the government.

"From an employment point of view I think it is very important for us to understand that Indian companies, including Indian IT companies, are going to be profit-driven and therefore if you believe that they are going to create employment you must be dreaming. Therefore, the question is how do we create employment in this environment, and that employment comes from mass scale startups, which is what this government has already doing," Nayyar said.

The Strategic Challenge of LLMs and Data Sovereignty

He said Indian citizens should be very careful about their data, asserting that LLM models worldwide are far superior to Indian models. He further mentioned that India needs radical strategic thinking for the complete development of the LLM model, adding that otherwise India would lose its data.

"So, how do we create new sets of people who are trying to solve new sets of problems not new sets of technology and if we do that we will get it right. I think we as Indians have to be very careful on who does data belong to and that is the debate we have a problem with. The LLM models which exist worldwide are far superior than the Indian models. Unfortunately, in India, we never develop products, so therefore we do not have SLMs and LLMs which are world-class. On one side, we have global LLM products which are coming to India and trading on our Indian data. Should we allowed that or should we not allowed that? But on the other side if we don't allow that then we have the data but we don't have the LLM models. So, how do we encourage technology completely to develop the LLM models. This needs radicals strategic thinking and a very important aspect otherwise we will either give up a data," Nayyar said.

Global Leaders Attend AI Impact Summit

The AI Impact Summit which kicked off on Monday in New Delhi will welcome world leaders from across 20 countries, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and others. UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres will also attend the event. (ANI)

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