- 3 hours ago
At the India Today AI Summit, the conversation moved beyond algorithms and valuations to a more fundamental question: power. As panellists noted, artificial intelligence runs not just on data and chips but on massive, uninterrupted energy supply to fuel data centres and high-performance computing. With AI workloads rising globally, advanced economies such as the United States and parts of Europe are already grappling with grid stress and delays in expanding generation capacity. Against this backdrop, speakers argued that India’s relative energy sufficiency and ongoing renewable expansion could offer a strategic edge. India has added significant power capacity in recent years and is pushing solar, wind and green hydrogen projects, positioning itself to meet rising digital infrastructure demand. If managed well, this energy readiness could help India scale domestic data centres, strengthen data sovereignty and even emerge as a competitive AI hub, turning power security into economic advantage in the global AI race.
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00:01Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. Welcome once again to the India Today AI Summit being held almost parallelly
00:09to the big AI Summit that the government of India has organized.
00:13The first time a summit of this scale being organized in the global south.
00:17And we thought we would look at now the big question. Can AI really power India's growth story?
00:26It's a question where a lot of numbers are thrown at you and we want to decode those numbers and
00:31understand what really will AI do to India's growth story.
00:36And I'm delighted to be joined by Vineet Mittal, founder and chairman of Avada Group.
00:42Dr. Mukesh Aagi, U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum CEO.
00:48Mike Haley, senior VP and research and generative AI lead at Autodesk.
00:54And Sumanth Sinha, chairman and founder and CEO of Renew.
01:00Appreciate all of you joining us here on this.
01:03I'm going to start by throwing a number at you because a lot of numbers are thrown with AI.
01:11Mukesh Aagi, you start because at PwC India's AI Edge for Vixit Bharat Report released at the World Economic Forum
01:20in Davos.
01:20AI, it was projected that AI can add 550 billion to five key sectors by 2035 in India.
01:31Is that hype or is that reality?
01:34We want to make this session about cutting through the noise and getting what is the reality.
01:39Will AI actually transform India's economy in the manner that is being projected?
01:45Well, it's a combination of hype and reality.
01:49You have to understand, it's too early to see where the transformation is going to come in.
01:57Yes, in certain sectors such as IT, BPO, we're seeing AI playing a very strong role.
02:03But when you get into the other high-end areas such as drug discoveries and other aspect of healthcare or
02:12in the energy area, it's too early to say.
02:15But I think more important is…
02:17So where is the number coming from?
02:18If it's so early to say, that's where I come from.
02:21Is there a sense that AI still remains the unknown?
02:24We don't know what comes next and therefore throwing numbers may be the wrong thing to do.
02:30Well, I wouldn't say that numbers can be measured at this stage because 550 billion is a large number.
02:41And I think we have to be very cautious about it.
02:45Let's not get into the hype of that.
02:47But AI is here for real.
02:50And if you don't leverage it, if you don't make it accessible, if you don't make it affordable, and if
02:55you don't make it scalable, that is going to harm the economy and the society and the country.
03:01You know, I have two people here who are with the energy sector, which many believe will be the driving
03:06force for this computing power.
03:08Suman, you want to go first.
03:10Do you believe that the energy sector, in a way, will drive this computing power of AI and take India
03:17to the next level where we could add $550 billion in five sectors within the next decade?
03:23Well, you know, the thing is that India is actually very well placed right now.
03:27The reason is that in the energy sector or in the power sector particularly, a lot of work has happened
03:34in terms of making sure that we are at a point where we have energy sufficiency.
03:38And so we are at a point now where a data center demand picks up and creates incremental demand for
03:44power, we are in a position to meet it.
03:47And that's great news for us, which also therefore means that not only would we have enough computing power for
03:53India, but we can also become an exporter of compute.
03:56And so that's, in a way, you think about exporting power.
04:00That's really what's going to happen in the form of intelligence.
04:02So I think we are actually fairly well placed.
04:05Now, whether that number is $550 billion or not by 2035, if you think about it, India's GDP is likely
04:12to be maybe $15 or $17 trillion by that time.
04:16$550 billion is only going to be 3 or 4% of the GDP at that point.
04:20It's not a big number.
04:22So it is quite conceivable that you can have something of that order of magnitude actually happening by 2035.
04:29Because, you know, I want to throw another number at you, Vineet.
04:33India holds nearly 20% of the world's data at the moment, but accounts for only 3% of global
04:40data center capacity.
04:43Now, can infrastructure expansion of these data centers keep pace to ensure AI competitiveness?
04:51Do you believe the Adanis are promising to invest a large amount?
04:55Jio is.
04:56Some states like Maharashtra are at the cutting edge when it comes to data centers, but it's not happening nationally.
05:02Do you believe in the next few years there will be an exponential expansion?
05:07And will the energy needs be met?
05:12Yes, Razdeep, if you look at just in Gmail, we are the largest user.
05:19Even the corporate emails are going on Gmail or Microsoft.
05:24Or I was chatting with someone at YouTube and more than 700 million users are Indians and they are the
05:33biggest content economy.
05:34So, if you look at all that data is currently not stored in India and data is stored in some
05:41other country.
05:43And since we don't have the data localization policy yet, I don't think the constraint is the infrastructure.
05:50The constraint is that all these large companies have kept data wherever it was convenient for them because there was
05:59no regulation regulating it.
06:02And I think with the now new data act, there will be more stringent norms coming for asking them to
06:11store locally.
06:12And that time, if you look at based on just existing value, you are looking at less than 2 gigawatt
06:18becoming 20 gigawatts.
06:20Some of the forecast is saying it will be 8 to 9 gigawatt, which should be easily doable because if
06:30you look at yesterday's announcement from government itself, 53.5 gigawatt we have added in the last 10 months.
06:37And with the project which has already been awarded and under construction, we will be completing another 60 to 70
06:45gigawatt of green power alone in the next 12 to 18 months.
06:50So, if you look at from the power side, we are self-sufficient.
06:53If you look at poor cities like Mumbai where multiple optical fibers are terminating, we have the bandwidth, we have
07:01the real estate infrastructure.
07:03On top of that, we have the talent pool, which is willing to do it successfully.
07:10So, in my sense, once U.S. realizes that they are struggling for power right now, they are looking at
07:20to explore space to do the power.
07:22Whereas countries like India are blessed with abundance of sun, wind, and with water storage and battery, it becomes reliable,
07:31predictable, and affordable.
07:32And that's the right way to build a data center and hyperscale-off.
07:36Okay, so you are saying energy is not a problem.
07:41That's not a constraint.
07:42But I want to turn to you, Mike Haley.
07:45The fact is, and again a data point, 80% of infrastructure that has already been built in the AI
07:52space is two countries, U.S. and China.
07:54They have taken over the AI space, and it almost seems that the rest of the world is playing catch
08:01-up.
08:01Yes, India accounts for 100 million weekly users of chat GPT.
08:07For open AI, this is one of the most important markets.
08:10But can a country convert this vast user base and data generation into a strategic advantage without actually investing much
08:20more in innovation?
08:22Traditionally, we just haven't invested in innovation like the Chinese and indeed the Americans have.
08:28So is that the key for us to take advantage of this AI opportunity?
08:33Well, yeah, I think, look, there's definitely an innovation aspect to this.
08:37There's no doubt about it.
08:38But, you know, India has had a lot of success in watching what the rest of the world fails at.
08:42And then when they learn the lesson, say, you know, we're going to take that and we're going to adopt
08:47the better approach, and that's what we're going to do.
08:49So I don't think there's anything wrong with not being the first to do something.
08:53In fact, I think it's actually very advantageous.
08:56What I would also say is I think, you know, what we're seeing with data centers is the emergence of
09:01an entirely new form of public infrastructure.
09:04I mean, this is not just data centers that Google has or Amazon has.
09:07This is the emergence of a new form.
09:09The last time this happened was in the time of Edison, right?
09:11So we're in an entirely new uncharted territory as a planet in thinking of what does it mean to have
09:17data centers as a public infrastructure.
09:19You're comparing data centers to Edison and electricity in a sense.
09:24In a sense, I am.
09:25Yeah.
09:25I mean, I think if you play this forward, data centers and what AI is providing is going to be
09:30a good that everybody gets access to, right?
09:33Now, the way this plays out, to your point, is different in different parts of the world, but this is
09:37what happened with energy.
09:39You know, different parts of the world did it early.
09:41They did it wrong.
09:42They did it badly.
09:43Other parts of the world learned from it, and then they evolved.
09:45So I think there's absolutely the opportunity to do that, you know.
09:49And then, you know, on the data side, too, it's not just about the physical data center.
09:55It's about learning to have the right data standards around this, adopting those data standards early.
10:01Because it's not just the data center.
10:02It's all the other parts of the country around it.
10:04It's all the water systems.
10:05It's the power systems.
10:07This is a systems problem.
10:08So having the right data sets in place that allow you to do the right design and analysis first is
10:14key.
10:14The India's got a huge opportunity right now to say, hey, we see what others are doing.
10:19We're just going to set that data standard and run with it.
10:22But the fact is, Dr. Aagi, America has already set the standards along with China when it comes to foundational
10:28models for AIs.
10:30What happens to the rest of the world?
10:32Does India watch these foundational models and tag along?
10:36Or does India try and create applied AI as its potential growth engine?
10:43Where does India stand?
10:44Will America, for example, be more than willing, U.S. companies be more than willing to share data with India
10:50to give India a slice of this large pie in a way?
10:57Well, India has the data.
10:58As you mentioned earlier, 20% of the global data is India.
11:03How do we store it in India?
11:05How do we keep our data sovereignty?
11:06And more than that, I think, you know, by saying we have 20% of the data, it's like telling
11:13Venezuela we have the world's largest reserve, but you're not able to do anything about it.
11:18We've got to do something about this data.
11:20And I think the strength of India is on the software side, on the application side.
11:26You have to understand, with time, the hardware will become plumbing.
11:31It's the application side which is going to drive a winnable solution around the world.
11:37And I think that's where India has to play a very pivotal role, and it will play a pivotal role
11:42by building application for the world itself.
11:45So I see a tremendous future on the app side, but as far as the LLM goes, as far as
11:50the hardware goes, I think ship has sailed.
11:54In that sense, are we playing catch-up or we discover our own model?
11:59You've got the Chinese model, very centralized, authoritarian, and you've got the U.S. model, which has been driven by
12:05entrepreneurial energies of the private sector.
12:07Does India find, Dr. Aagi, its own model?
12:10Well, India has to find its own place.
12:12And it's not about model.
12:13It's about trying to leverage the data it has.
12:16And that can be leveraged by building world-class AI application, which we can basically, it's not just about building
12:23a world-class application, it's also about implementing them.
12:28India has the resources.
12:30When you look at all the information, by 2030, India will have 20% of the world's global digital workers
12:36itself.
12:36So a combination of apps, digital worker, I think India can play a much more stronger role.
12:42Mike, you wanted to say something.
12:43Yeah, I think we have to be careful because I think the hyperscalers want you to believe that the solution
12:49to everything lies in one of their large models, right?
12:52Now, the solution to a lot of their stuff lies in their models, but by far not everything.
12:57There's unique problems around the world.
12:58And as we get into vertical AI, as we get into AI for medicine, AI for infrastructure, AI for manufacturing,
13:05this is where a country like India has massive advantages.
13:08I guarantee you a ton of that data, that 20% of data that's sitting in India is exactly this
13:13kind of data.
13:14There you have an opportunity to say, let's take that, let's build a solution that is uniquely for the Indian
13:20market.
13:20It caters to the problems you have here and be a leader in that.
13:24There's absolutely an opportunity.
13:25You don't have to be replicating and building the same thing that hyperscalers are building in China or the United
13:31States.
13:31So give me an example of a kind of model.
13:33Would it be a sort of large language model, uniquely suited to Indian conditions?
13:38It could be a large language model.
13:40We're now seeing, as many people know, the emergence of world models.
13:43And world models are beginning to understand the physicality of the world.
13:46So at Autodesk, because our customers are building physical things, where we spend our time in AI is not on
13:51language models because other people are building those.
13:53What we're doing is we're building models that understand geometry, buildings, physics, structure, the manufacturing principles of something.
14:01So these are the kind of, this is an example that I'm giving.
14:03The same thing would exist in medicine, bioscience, and these other fields.
14:06You can start building dedicated models that can actually understand the physical behavior.
14:11Not the sequence of words that makes it look like it understands it, but the actual understanding of that.
14:16So there's a big leap forward just waiting to be tackled.
14:19You know, but there is also a feeling, Suman, that India has traditionally worked on the principle that government knows
14:27best.
14:27Government is my bump.
14:28And it required the 1991 economic liberalization in a way to break that mindset.
14:35Do you believe with AI the government also needs to recognize?
14:38The entrepreneurial energies are out there.
14:40You need a regulatory framework, but beyond the regulatory framework,
14:44you need less and less intervention and more and more attempts at enabling.
14:50I need land, I need energy, I need water.
14:55The government can be an enabler.
14:57Do you believe the government realizes that with this AI revolution, it can't drive it.
15:02It has to be driven by private energy.
15:04Look, I think that's very clear.
15:06The government can't set about to build large language models, whether it's in, you know, in his sector or in
15:13some other sector or in medicine, as we saw.
15:15I think all of that has to be driven by entrepreneurs.
15:17I think that is very clear.
15:18I think where the government can help is in providing data sovereignty so that all the data has to be
15:24kept here, number one.
15:26Number two, they have to encourage maybe the development of some of these local models, perhaps.
15:32They have to also look at how some of these data centers can come up in a way that we
15:38have the compute capability and power here.
15:41They can play a role potentially in driving some of these chips into India, some of the latest chips, perhaps
15:46through trade agreements with the U.S.
15:49and other countries that make these chips.
15:51So those are the areas where the government can help.
15:53I don't think the government can help in actually doing what entrepreneurs need to do.
15:57I mean, that is very clear.
15:59I think the other thing is that, you know, one of the things that I'm pretty clear that is going
16:03to drive growth in AI is going to be the ability for countries to set up data centers
16:09and have that capability and have that ability to be done in-house in the country itself.
16:14And I think that's where India has a big advantage because simply of the fact that we were talking about
16:19earlier,
16:19and this is not to be underestimated, we have a single national grid, for example, right?
16:24We can move power around from place X to place Y.
16:27If, in fact, the whole AI revolution, to some extent, depends on power as a constraining factor,
16:35then we actually are pretty well placed to address that issue, right?
16:38China is as well, of course, but so is India.
16:41And I think we have to give ourselves credit for having that capability
16:45and the fact that, therefore, we have an advantage.
16:47We have it more than, let's say, Europe does or even the U.S. for that matter, right?
16:51So I think that's something that we should really take advantage of,
16:53and that's an area where the government does actually have a role to play
16:56and can be facilitative in making sure that grid development continues to be as strong as it needs to be.
17:01If I can just add something to that.
17:03So I completely agree with you, and I think another aspect of that is the data itself.
17:08So when you get into these vertical AIs, these industry-specific AIs,
17:12that data does not sit on the open Internet.
17:16One truth.
17:17The second truth is no one company has enough data inside them.
17:21So now you're sitting with the problem of how do you gather, let's just take in the field,
17:25let's take medicine or bioscience.
17:26How do you gather enough bioscience data across your entire industry in order to train a local model that's good?
17:33Really, the only entity that can do that in an unbiased way, hopefully, is the government.
17:39You deal with governments over the years.
17:41Do you believe that there is a variation within governments?
17:44Some states have understood the need to get on to this AI juggernaut.
17:50Other states are well behind, and therefore, like we've seen with other sectors of the economy,
17:56look at growth rates in some of the southern states,
17:59compare them with the growth rates in north and eastern India.
18:02Will we also see with AI, AI hubs being created around areas which already have high growth rates,
18:09and therefore, India will be geographically divided in this AI revolution.
18:14It's not as if 100 billion Indians are going to get equal benefits out of this AI revolution.
18:19It will actually widen divides, widen inequalities.
18:23If you look at from the central government perspective,
18:27they use their purchasing power to buy the GPUs in bulk,
18:31and ensure that compute is not an issue for people trying to build AI stack.
18:40So if you look at Sarvam today, so I don't agree that India should not build its own stack, actually.
18:48You think Sarvam can compete with the big players that are already there?
18:53So see, they have started, they have announced with 100 billion token,
18:57and say, Chad GPT or Anthropi is at trillion.
19:02But once you have started with that base,
19:05and if you are able to attract the capital,
19:07you should be able to technically grow.
19:10So the basic science, you have got it right.
19:12So my fear is that
19:15if you don't start owning up the digital,
19:19we are looking towards digital gulami.
19:21So it's a, first we give the rights to, say,
19:24Google's of this world and WhatsApp's of this world
19:27to actually get into everyone's life
19:29and have all the data stored in some other country.
19:32And same mistake we are making with the AI.
19:35So we are already digital gulams.
19:37So, you know, you use the word digital gulami.
19:39The truth is why, you know, let's call it,
19:41we are digital gulams.
19:42For all the hype,
19:43the truth of the matter is the Western world
19:45and indeed China is leading this AI race.
19:48And as I said, we are playing catch up.
19:50No, so I think what we have to look at,
19:53have we realized it?
19:54So what is happening now with this approach of government
19:58that they can't do it all,
19:59but they found that if we can build infrastructure
20:02at the cheapest possible cost,
20:04which entrepreneurs won't be able to do,
20:07then let's make it open to all the entrepreneurs
20:10to exploit it and let's see where we go.
20:13So they have not made the similar mistake,
20:15which was made decades back
20:17where we let Gmails and Microsoft and everything,
20:21non-Indians come and become part of everyone's life.
20:24So I think that way,
20:26central government has started it well
20:28and organizing this level of global conference nationally.
20:33And if you look at the state like Andhra and Maharashtra,
20:37they have got it right.
20:38Andhra is doing amazing work on setting up even quantum lab.
20:42They are going and partnering with the best in the world
20:45to even forget about GPU, TPUs,
20:48and the latest one to come here
20:50and give the compute on demand.
20:53And then you can build the local AI stack much better.
20:57See, today, if you look at
21:00in U.S., what is happening is
21:02U.S. needs around 75 gigawatt roughly of data center capacity before 2030.
21:09They have grid connectivity of 25,
21:13available till 2030,
21:14and 10 gigawatt is under construction by the giants.
21:18So if you look at from that angle,
21:2049 gigawatt is odd shortage.
21:22And if you look at there,
21:24the transformer is taking three years.
21:25If you look at GE also is not able to supply the gas turbines before 2030.
21:33So there is an opportunity loss,
21:35which is already happening to the U.S.
21:37And India can now step in,
21:39because we are power sufficient
21:41and we are able to bring solar, wind,
21:44and storage in 18 to 24 months.
21:46We can become the platform for the U.S. company
21:49to provide them data center hyperscaler in India
21:52and provide that infrastructure and co-build it.
21:56Mugesh, can that happen?
21:58We've got this budget,
21:59which has given a 21-year TRAX holiday
22:02to U.S. companies in cloud services
22:04that are willing to invest in Indian-built data center infrastructure.
22:11It's a good start.
22:12But you have to understand that if we don't move,
22:17we're not moving into digital divide.
22:20We're moving to AI feudalism.
22:22And I think that's dangerous for society.
22:25That's dangerous for countries.
22:27You've used the word AI feudalism.
22:29What is AI feudalism?
22:30Basically, you have few leaders in the business world,
22:35few companies controlling the whole AI infrastructure
22:39from ALMs to chips design.
22:40And countries are dependent on that.
22:43And we are seeing that happening at the moment.
22:45I think India has to play on its strength.
22:49And its strength is software.
22:51Its strength is trying to build apps on that infrastructure.
22:55The challenge is going to be is,
22:58as you mentioned earlier,
22:59can government play a role?
23:00I think government can play a role more from the perspective
23:03of making sure the environment,
23:06the regulation are conducive for entrepreneurship to flourish.
23:10Today, if you look at,
23:11we basically spend 0.7% of 1% of our GDP on R&D
23:17as compared to U.S., which is at 3.5%,
23:20and Israel is 8% itself.
23:23So we need to define the laws, change the laws,
23:26so the incentive for R&D for companies
23:29to get some tax benefits there.
23:32But also, we have to look at,
23:33how do we get cheap capital into the country?
23:35It is important for entrepreneurs to get those capital
23:38so they can flourish.
23:39So I think we have to play on our strength,
23:41which is AI app,
23:43and try to focus on getting cheap capital in the country
23:45so entrepreneurs can flourish here.
23:47Mike, you know,
23:51you wanted to put in a word, yes.
23:52So if you look at
23:54what Anthropi CEO in the morning was chatting with me
23:57and saying that they are disrupting entire app development.
24:02They came out with the legal stack
24:04and few other stack,
24:07and we see the Indian IT stocks even going down
24:10because they are able to disrupt the programming.
24:13So I don't think that depending pure on development
24:19and differential wage arbitrage is the right way.
24:22I think the time has come where we have the capital,
24:26know-how,
24:27we are already making chips at nanometer scale.
24:31We need to improve,
24:34and unless you have that ecosystem,
24:36you are not going to succeed.
24:38We can keep thinking that the world will do it for us,
24:42but what is stopping them from censoring it
24:45and not supplying it to us 10 years down the line?
24:47But Mike, it comes to that,
24:49and it's a point that Mukesh also made,
24:50in terms of our investment in R&D.
24:53I mean, how do you incentivize the new age companies
24:56to invest in R&D?
24:58It's good to have a summit,
25:00to see these young startups with great ideas out there,
25:04but eventually if you've got to scale up,
25:06and in a country of India,
25:07scale up and show that they can generate revenues,
25:10how are you going to do that
25:12without stronger incentivized investment
25:15in research and development?
25:16Look, I mean, I agree on the regulation thing.
25:19I mean, you've got to create an environment
25:21that's conducive to this.
25:22Now, I think there's three aspects to this.
25:25There's an educational aspect to it,
25:26which includes both the academic research side,
25:29but also the fundamental education.
25:31Now, I think India is way far ahead in that.
25:33I think you've got some great capabilities there
25:36to build off, so there's that.
25:37Then there's the regulation and the government side,
25:39and then there's the economic and business side.
25:41And you've got to find the balance of all of those
25:44and figuring out the right way to do it.
25:45And if you can create an environment,
25:47I mean, this is what, I mean,
25:48Silicon Valley, where I live,
25:50isn't perfect by any means,
25:51but it has this balance, you know,
25:54that sort of existed for a while,
25:56and it just creates this sort of magical thing.
25:58Now, I don't think it means replicating Silicon Valley
26:01inside India, for the record.
26:03I mean, I think every country has its own unique flavor
26:06that you need to create for this,
26:08but I think you also have a very young demographic
26:10in this country.
26:11You have an enormous number of graduates coming out,
26:14so you have this opportunity to educate
26:16and create the sense of, you know,
26:18I can experiment, I can try things,
26:21and I can do it, and it's safe to fail,
26:23and I can do that.
26:24Creating that culture, I think,
26:26is really, really, really, really important.
26:28You know, Suman, your own example from renewables,
26:31for example, 20 years ago,
26:33who would have thought that India would emerge
26:34as one of the leaders in renewables?
26:3830 years ago, who would have thought
26:39that economic liberalization
26:41would transform India in the way it has?
26:44Is the glass, there are two ways.
26:46Journalists tend to look at the glass as half empty.
26:48My job is to puncture holes in the bubbles
26:51that we see around us,
26:52because there's far too much of PR that goes on.
26:55Let's be real.
26:57Do you believe that we can become a leader in AI,
27:01or have we missed the bus?
27:02I want an honest answer.
27:03I met someone, senior,
27:05who said India has got a lot of catching up to do.
27:09Can we be realistic for once,
27:11rather than hype?
27:12Are we getting caught up in hype hysteria?
27:15Look, I think that the world has made
27:18very rapid and very sudden progress
27:21on the whole AI front.
27:22Did we miss that bus over the last 10 years?
27:24Look, I think that it's,
27:26as somebody said,
27:27there are maybe a couple of countries
27:28that are ahead of everybody else.
27:30But India is sort of,
27:32I would say, just a step behind.
27:33Maybe two steps behind.
27:35But certainly we're not,
27:36along with everybody else
27:37and the rest of the chasing pack.
27:39We are somewhere in between, right?
27:40And I think the government
27:41is trying its best right now
27:43through summits like we're having at this point
27:45to raise the awareness,
27:46raise the ante,
27:49push the private sector a little bit harder,
27:51provide whatever they can
27:52from an enabling standpoint
27:53to create that framework, right?
27:55Now it's really up to us
27:56in the private sector
27:57to push the ball forward, right?
27:59And you said,
28:00you know, you rightly said...
28:01Because renewables,
28:02let's take software, for example.
28:04Software was built by entrepreneurs
28:06in and around Bengaluru at the outset
28:08who took their chances.
28:10Do you see that happening with AI?
28:11Look, I am not directly dealing
28:14in that ecosystem of AI startups,
28:16but I'm pretty sure
28:17that Indians are entrepreneurial,
28:20they are smart,
28:21they are hungry,
28:22and they're now very well educated,
28:24and there's lots of them,
28:25and there's a lot of reverse brain drain
28:26going on as well.
28:27We are much better integrated
28:29into the global ecosystem,
28:31especially on things like AI,
28:32now than we were earlier.
28:33So I would be very surprised
28:35if over the next several years,
28:37we don't have a lot of new AI-based startups
28:39that come up that eventually
28:41end up becoming quite successful.
28:43And keep one more thing in mind, Rajdeep.
28:44The U.S. is the best country for marketing, right?
28:48They do a fantastic job, right?
28:50So just because there's so much hype
28:51and there are all these companies
28:53that have these trillion dollar valuations
28:55doesn't mean that it isn't driven
28:57by a lot of hype as well, right?
28:59So I think reality is going to catch up.
29:01I think Indian companies will catch up.
29:03I have a lot of confidence
29:05that that is going to happen.
29:07Mukesh, are you as...
29:08as buoyant about the next decade,
29:12is this going to be India's AI decade?
29:15I believe that this is the second Y2K movement
29:20for Indian industry.
29:22It's the Y2K movement again?
29:24Again.
29:25And when you look at the...
29:27the Indian software industry grew
29:29because government had no idea
29:31what this animal was.
29:33And the entrepreneur grew it.
29:36I think if you create the same environment
29:38for the entrepreneur
29:39and bring the capital, which is cheap,
29:41you will see India flourish in this area.
29:44You are as confident?
29:47I'm actually...
29:48I'll give you two examples.
29:50when I started in the IT sector,
29:53my clients used to say,
29:55you don't even have telephone line
29:56and you are going to provide tech support from India.
29:59So from no landline to direct wireless.
30:03And second time,
30:04when I started solar,
30:06I bought solar panels from...
30:08first solar,
30:09and they refused to sell me
30:10because India had no solar plant
30:13of even one megawatt.
30:14And they said,
30:15partner with German
30:16before I sell you the solar panel.
30:18And in 16 years,
30:19now we are setting up
30:21world's largest in 22.
30:22In middle of COVID,
30:24we set up the world's largest.
30:25And now we are setting up
30:26multiple such large projects.
30:28So I think
30:28if you don't believe
30:30in Indian talent,
30:32then
30:34that's the mistake
30:35world is making.
30:36I see that
30:37this has
30:39lots and lots of opportunity.
30:40and
30:42as an Indian,
30:43I think
30:43we all will contribute
30:45towards exploiting it.
30:46That's good to hear.
30:47I think that deserves an applause
30:48because
30:49I think, you know,
30:50what we've done with solar energy,
30:51what we've done with renewables
30:53is quite remarkable.
30:55Mike,
30:55you were nodding your head.
30:57Are you impressed
30:58with what
30:59India is attempting to do?
31:00As I said,
31:01there is this
31:02huge talent pool.
31:03You mentioned that as well.
31:05The challenge is
31:06providing them the opportunity
31:08and creating that
31:09enabling environment.
31:10Is there any lesson
31:11that you would like
31:12to tell young
31:13Indian entrepreneurs
31:14from your experiences
31:16in Silicon Valley?
31:17Yes.
31:18There's one word.
31:19Be adaptable.
31:20Sorry?
31:21Adaptability.
31:22And it's actually the reason
31:23why I think
31:23things are going to work
31:24in India
31:25because I think
31:25what I see in India
31:26is actually
31:27an entire country
31:28that is used
31:29to being adaptable.
31:30And none of us
31:32know what the AI future
31:33is going to look like.
31:34There's a lot of people
31:34telling you right now.
31:35The reality is
31:36none of us know
31:37what this is going to look like.
31:38Even us that are working
31:39directly in the field.
31:40If you have adaptability
31:42at your core,
31:43you've got the secret source
31:45to how to figure this out.
31:46So I really do think
31:46I'm very bullish for India.
31:48You know,
31:48the word adaptability
31:49has different connotations
31:50in India.
31:51The Hindi word
31:52is jugaad at times.
31:53The other word,
31:54of course,
31:55is that we are able to
31:57we can handle situations
31:58far better
31:59than most other people,
32:02if I may say so,
32:03in the world.
32:03We know how to face adversity.
32:05But Subhan,
32:05you wanted to make a point.
32:06I was just going to say
32:07that, look,
32:08as you rightly said,
32:09in renewables,
32:09we got off to a slightly
32:10later start.
32:11But we've had a fantastic
32:12public-private partnership
32:14that's worked very well.
32:15Government has made policies,
32:16has encouraged,
32:17the private sector has stepped up.
32:18And to the point
32:19where last year,
32:20we actually added
32:21more solar capacity
32:22in India
32:22than the US did.
32:24So we were actually
32:24the second largest country
32:26in terms of solar capacity
32:27additions.
32:27So we can make it happen.
32:29Okay.
32:29I think that's a nice
32:31positive note
32:31on which to conclude
32:33this India Today AI summit.
32:36The future is already here
32:38and it is for India
32:39to seize the moment
32:40and make sure that
32:43this vast country
32:45with its potential
32:46demographic dividend
32:47is able to exploit
32:49the moment to our advantage.
32:51You've given us
32:52lots of food for thought
32:54and I appreciate
32:56each and every one of you
32:57joining us here
32:58at the India Today
32:59AI Summit.
33:00Thank you very much.
33:02Ladies and gentlemen,
33:03please give them
33:04a very big hand.
33:05Wonderful to have you
33:06here today.
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