The LLM station: India’s urgent boarding call after missing cloud and social media stops

By Apalak Ghosh, Founder and Chief Analyst at Think Teal

As India navigates its path towards becoming a digital superpower, the imperative for a vision towards developing indigenous Large Language Models (LLMs) has never been more pronounced. This vision, articulated through initiatives like Make AI in India, isn’t merely about embracing the digital age but leading it from the front. The genesis of this initiative can be traced back to the government’s vision of democratising AI innovation and ensuring its benefits percolate to every stratum of Indian society. Building on this very foundation, the comprehensive Make AI in India and Make AI Work for India programs were designed to accelerate the development and application of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) in India. Such initiatives underscore a commitment to developing indigenous AI capabilities, ensuring that the benefits of AI are widely accessible and tailored to India’s diverse linguistic, cultural, and societal landscape​

This vision for AI in India is part of a broader narrative of self-reliance and innovation. Yet, despite its vast digital user base, India’s presence in the global digital infrastructure landscape—marked by the absence of a homegrown Cloud Service Provider (CSP) or a widely popular social media platform—underscores a glaring gap. This void not only signifies missed opportunities in leveraging digital technologies for economic and social advancements but also highlights vulnerabilities in digital sovereignty, making the case for indigenous AI development all the more critical.

Much like our indigenous space program, which enhanced India’s strategic autonomy and showcased its technological capabilities on the global stage, the pursuit of native AI development can secure India’s autonomy in the digital domain. This parallels the broader narrative of self-reliance, positioning India as a nation that does not just consume technology but also creates it. In this regard, India’s ambitions for GenAI should not be just about catching up but setting the pace. It should be about transitioning from a service-centric economy to one that innovates and produces high-value technological products. By fostering innovation in AI and LLMs, India can not only diversify its economic portfolio but also climb higher up the global value chain.

As we look to the future, it’s evident that the parameters for evaluating a country’s global standing
are evolving. The era where gold, defence capabilities, and GDP were the sole indicators of a nation’s
might be giving way to one where digital excellence plays a crucial role. In this new era, developing indigenous AI technologies, including LLMs, is imperative for India to secure its strategic interests and maintain its innovative capabilities. LLMs can be the catalyst to accelerating innovation as the potential applications of GenAI are evolving. The potential of General AI (GenAI) stretches far beyond current applications, touching upon critical areas such as governance enhancements, expediting vaccine development, and more.

For instance, while traditional methods took significant time to develop vaccines, GenAI’s predictive capabilities could drastically reduce this, illustrating just one of the myriad ways in which AI can revolutionise our approach to global challenges. India’s investment in native LLM development positions it to lead in these future innovations, ensuring that its contributions are both locally relevant and globally significant.

Furthermore, the nation’s ambition to leverage General AI (GenAI) for transformative advancements across sectors like healthcare and governance is contingent on unfettered access to global LLM innovations. However, given the volatile nature of international dynamics, there’s a realistic possibility of facing restricted access to these critical AI technologies. Such restrictions could severely limit India’s ability to benefit from and contribute to, the global AI ecosystem, placing it at a strategic disadvantage. This threat underscores the critical need for India to double down on its efforts to develop native LLM capabilities. By building a self-reliant AI ecosystem, India should aim not just to ensure its active participation in the AI revolution but also to safeguard its strategic autonomy and national interests.

Any narrative of technological development is incomplete without mentioning the role of government support. The success stories of global giants like Alibaba in China, and IKEA and Volvo in Sweden, underscore the transformative impact of state support in nurturing technological innovation and economic competitiveness. These examples illustrate how strategic backing, combined with innovation and entrepreneurship, can catapult companies—and by extension, nations—onto the global stage. As India embarks on this ambitious path, the collaborative efforts of the government, the private sector, and the academic community will be pivotal. Together, they have the potential to transform India’s digital landscape, ensuring that the nation not just navigates the future of GenAI but shapes it.