<\/p>\n
After initially pushing for DeepSeek-like large language models (LLMs) last year, the Centre has recalibrated its stance. The emphasis now is on building smaller AI models tailored for enterprise use cases. Startups, too, say it is \u201ctoo early” to unveil sweeping LLMs capable of competing with US and Chinese counterparts.<\/p>\n
The AI Impact Summit, scheduled in New Delhi from 16\u201320 February, will showcase a collection of early-stage, in-development AI models from startups backed by the Centre\u2019s $1.2-billion India AI Mission, four industry executives and two officials aware of the plans told Mint<\/i>.<\/p>\nStrategy reset<\/h2>\n
On 30 January, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a press briefing in New Delhi that \u201cbuilding large AI<\/a> models, that require heavy capex, is not the only way to become a leading nation in AI.”<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, most experts I spoke with at the World Economic Forum, as well as generally, said that small AI models of 20-50 billion parameters are good enough to serve enterprise AI use cases. At the upcoming AI Impact Summit, India will showcase a bouquet of AI models\u2014of which such sovereign models will be a part,” the minister added.<\/p>\n Vaishnaw also confirmed that India will showcase a “bouquet of models” during the Summit, without specifying their details.<\/p>\n What India presents at its first marquee global AI event carries immense significance, especially after International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva said at the World Economic Forum in January that India was a \u201csecond grouping” nation in AI\u2014triggering a widely publicized rebuttal from Vaishnaw.<\/p>\n Although Georgieva later described India as \u201cone of the major forces in developing AI,” analysts say the burden of proof remains on India to demonstrate progress in foundational technologies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Companies Mint<\/i> spoke with echoed Vaishnaw\u2019s assessment: most models on display will be early-stage proofs of concept.<\/p>\n Bengaluru-based Gnani, one of 12 AI Mission-backed startups, will showcase \u201can early build of the sovereign voice-to-voice AI model” at the Impact Summit, founder and chief executive Ganesh Gopalan said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fully-developed commercial version of the model will take some time, since we got access to 1,000 GPUs through E2E Networks only late last year. The full-scale model will be trained on 70 billion parameters of data, and will be released later this calendar year,” he added.<\/p>\n IIT Mumbai-incubated BharatGen\u2014the highest-funded AI startup in India, backed by $112 million from the AI Mission\u2014will showcase an early AI model based on 17 billion parameters, built before receiving Mission support, one executive said.<\/p>\n \u201cBharatGen was only approved under the Mission in September. It has taken about a quarter for them to get the infrastructure, and it is only now that they are integrating their models and cloud platforms with the new GPU infrastructure. Building large LLMs is a complex affair that takes time, so the showcase won\u2019t be of anything as striking as what China did this time last year with DeepSeek<\/a>,” the executive said.<\/p>\n The only exception, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter, could be IIT Madras-incubated, Peak XV-backed Sarvam. The startup may showcase a commercial, multi-modal, 120-billion-parameter foundational LLM with native support for inputs and responses across all of India\u2019s 22 official languages.<\/p>\n Sarvam did not respond to Mint\u2019<\/i>s emails and messages seeking comment.<\/p>\n An LLM is trained on vast datasets to generate human-like speech, cognition and decision-making. While most global models operate primarily in English and text, India\u2019s focus has been on voice-first, local-language AI systems.<\/p>\n At a pre-Summit briefing on 29 December, S Krishnan, secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), said India aims to export LLMs as digital public infrastructure to non-English-speaking nations.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n China\u2019s DeepSeek and Qwen surprised US Big Tech firms last year by unveiling LLMs that rivalled Google\u2019s Gemini and OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT\u2014at a claimed fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n The so-called \u201cDeepSeek moment” became symbolic of how innovation could sharply reduce the cost of building and operating foundational AI models, challenging the capital-heavy US approach.<\/p>\n India wants to spend public taxpayer\u2019s money on backing private entities to build AI models like China\u2019s DeepSeek because New Delhi expects AI to become a potential point of leverage that could halt economies and affect businesses, in a period of the most active geopolitical conflicts since World War II.<\/p>\n The AI Impact Summit is expected to host global AI leaders including Alphabet chief Sundar Pichai and Google DeepMind founder and Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nEarly builds<\/h2>\n
Global benchmark<\/h2>\n
Geopolitical stakes<\/h2>\n