India Aims to Become Global AI Inferencing Hub as Data Center Push Accelerates

"India has the potential to become the data centre capital of the world and, more importantly, the inferencing capital of the world, where a significant share of global AI inferencing work can be carried out," Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Chief Executive Officer of IndiaAI, said while addressing a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) conference on AI for equitable growth and societal good.

Singh said recent policy measures announced in the Union Budget -- including incentives for data centre expansion, tax exemptions and simplification of safe harbour rules -- were already translating into strong investment interest from global technology firms.

Companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon have been expanding their footprint in India's digital infrastructure ecosystem, he said.

The push to scale up data centres and AI infrastructure forms a core pillar of India's broader strategy to deploy artificial intelligence as a kinetic enabler of economic growth and productivity, Singh said.

He added that large-scale inferencing capabilities would give India a strategic advantage in the development, deployment and diffusion of AI services across sectors.

India is hosting the IndiaAI Impact Summit from February 16 to 20, which is expected to see participation from around 20 heads of state, nearly 60 ministers, leading chief executives and top researchers from across the world.

The summit has been structured around three pillars -- People, Planet and Progress -- and seven thematic "chakras", with a focus on actionable outcomes rather than policy discussions alone.

Singh said AI's contribution to economic growth, employment and per capita income was becoming increasingly significant, particularly as the technology reshapes global IT services.

India, long known as the world's technology services hub, must now move up the value chain by positioning itself as a prime provider of AI transformation and agentic AI services, he said.

He also highlighted the need for large-scale skilling and capacity building to ensure India's existing engineering workforce can effectively leverage AI tools, rather than be displaced by them.

Initiatives such as the FutureSkills Prime platform, developed in partnership with NASSCOM, would play a key role in this transition, he said.

Singh said India's ambition to scale its AI infrastructure and services ecosystem aligned with its long-term economic goal of moving from a USD 4 trillion economy to a USD 30 trillion economy, with AI acting as a critical driver of efficiency, productivity and inclusive growth.

India's national artificial intelligence mission is already delivering tangible outcomes, including some of the world's lowest-cost AI compute and the development of indigenous foundation models, as the country prepares to host a landmark global AI summit later this month, Sudeep Srivastava, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), told ANI on the sidelines of the same event.

"The intent of the India AI Mission, launched in March 2024, is to make India AI-ready, and this mission has already started showing results," Shrivastava said, adding that India now offers compute power at rates as low as 65 rupees per GPU hour for certain workloads, which he described as "one of the lowest in the world".

He added that 12 startups under the India AI Mission are currently developing indigenous foundation models, some of which will be demonstrated at the upcoming IndiaAI Impact Summit.

The India AI Mission is structured around seven pillars, including AI compute infrastructure, innovation centres for foundational models, curated datasets, application development, future skills, startup financing, and safe and reliable AI, Shrivastava said.

Shrivastava also highlighted the launch of a new initiative to train 100,000 college students in foundational AI and machine learning, alongside broader efforts to build a nationwide continuum of AI skilling from schools to workplaces.

"Through these initiatives, we aim to ensure welfare for all and happiness for all, while positioning India as a leader in AI for the Global South," he said.

- ANI