DeepSeek has triggered a dramatic shift within the international AI race: it remodeled the beforehand dominant framing of a China-U.S. AI rivalry right into a broader international competitors, particularly amongst rising powers within the World South. This shift is especially evident in India’s case.
DeepSeek’s in a single day success considerably reshaped New Delhi’s notion of the AI panorama, leading to concrete steps aimed toward strengthening its place within the international AI competitors. There have been notable shifts in India’s methods and initiatives designed to foster the nationwide AI innovation ecosystem, enabling it to compete with america and China via lively engagement with Indian startups and entrepreneurs.
After DeepSeek: India’s New Notion of the AI Race
DeepSeek has basically reshaped India’s notion of the AI race, sparking a wave of latest debates. Chief amongst them is a renewed dialogue about India’s relative place in international AI improvement.
Why is India lagging behind the U.S. and China in AI? Why hasn’t India produced AI developments corresponding to China’s DeepSeek or america’ ChatGPT? These considerations have turn out to be central to almost all AI coverage debates in India for the reason that rise of DeepSeek. India’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has regularly encountered these questions in current public discussions. In different phrases, DeepSeek has ignited a broader critique of India’s positioning within the international AI panorama.
Issues are rising that India dangers turning into a digital colony of the U.S. and China, as each international locations quickly advance AI applied sciences that more and more form India’s know-how panorama. This concern has been articulated by many coverage specialists, together with Amitabh Kant, former CEO of India’s apex public coverage assume tank, NITI Aayog, and the G-20 Sherpa throughout India’s presidency. Writing for The Indian Categorical, Kant argued that DeepSeek symbolizes China’s developments in AI, whereas ChatGPT displays U.S. technological progress. In the meantime, India stays primarily a consumer of those AI techniques. This state of affairs raises crucial considerations about India’s AI sovereignty and its capability to develop homegrown AI applied sciences aligned with its cultural and financial priorities.
DeepSeek’s success additionally performed a key function in shifting India’s AI technique from a domestically targeted method to 1 with worldwide and geoeconomic ambitions. India is now searching for to compete globally in AI improvement fairly than concentrating solely on the implementation of AI instruments inside the Indian tech panorama.
Earlier than DeepSeek, India noticed AI primarily as a device for home financial development, significantly for reaching its targets of reaching 10 p.c GDP development by 2023 and making a $1 trillion digital financial system. Nonetheless, these targets have been extra about leveraging current instruments domestically than about worldwide competitors or AI innovation. Now India is scaling up plans to compete on the international degree, viewing AI as a crucial trade from a geoeconomic, fairly than merely financial, perspective.
Extra importantly, DeepSeek has instilled a way of confidence amongst Indian policymakers that native startups and smaller investments can certainly drive AI innovation. Shortly after its launch, Vaishnaw, India’s IT minister, hailed DeepSeek’s success, underscoring the truth that even smaller firms with comparatively restricted funding may compete with the closely financed AI fashions produced by the worldwide tech giants. His feedback have been seen as an oblique critique of Sam Altman, the chief government of OpenAI, who visited India for the primary time in 2023 and suggested that India shouldn’t try and construct foundational AI fashions because of the excessive prices and resource-intensive nature of such know-how
After the launch of DeepSeek, a brand new wave of enthusiasm emerged, buoyed by the idea that India can obtain AI breakthroughs with restricted investments – just like its success with the Digital Public Infrastructure mannequin, which was not initially appreciated however was later adopted by different nations. This sentiment has been echoed by many coverage advocates, who argue that DeepSeek has confirmed that Indian startups can compete with international AI tech firms like OpenAI. As they put it, “The AI arms race isn’t about cash. It’s about starvation.”
The Indian State as a Monetary Useful resource Supplier
In opposition to this backdrop, the Indian authorities has expanded its strategic function in strengthening the nation’s AI innovation ecosystem. By taking a extra lively management place, it goals to compete with different international AI leaders.
Following DeepSeek’s launch, governments all over the world considerably elevated their monetary commitments, underscoring the strategic significance of AI funding. The Indian authorities’s newest finances, offered to Parliament shortly after the launch of DeepSeek, considerably elevated the allocation for the India AI Mission – initially launched in 2024 – from roughly $66 million within the 2024-25 finances to around $240 million within the 2025-26 finances, an virtually four-fold enhance.
Furthermore, as mentioned beneath, the federal government introduced varied direct and oblique monetary assist measures aimed toward bolstering the Indian non-public sector. Particular provisions have been additionally included within the Union Price range to develop key AI infrastructure and supply subsidies to startups for accelerated development. These developments underscore the Indian state’s rising prominence as a big monetary supporter of AI improvement, particularly within the post-DeepSeek period.
New State-Enterprise Relations: Embarking on a New Kind of Startup Capitalism
Past growing the state finances for the AI mission, the Indian authorities has assumed a direct function in fostering AI improvement able to competing with main AI powers resembling america and China.
Shortly after the launch of DeepSeek, the Indian authorities settled an ongoing debate inside India’s coverage and enterprise communities by formally committing to the event of an indigenous AI basis mannequin. On January 30, 2025, the federal government invited proposals from Indian startups and enterprises to develop giant multimodal fashions, giant language fashions, and small language fashions particularly tailor-made to India’s wants.
As a part of this initiative, the federal government has pledged important assist, together with monetary backing, entry to high-quality datasets, and AI infrastructure resembling sponsored computing energy. This transfer marks a big shift in India’s AI technique, ushering in a brand new period of startup capitalism the place the federal government performs an lively function in AI improvement by equipping companies with the mandatory sources to drive innovation and competitiveness.
India’s method to startup capitalism presents a brand new mannequin, differing from each america’ privately pushed ecosystem and East Asia’s state-led initiatives. Not like the privately-driven startup capitalism within the U.S., the Indian authorities has proactively supported startups by offering important monetary sources, knowledge entry, and infrastructure assist. On this sense, India’s startup capitalism carefully aligns with the East Asian method, notably seen in international locations resembling China, South Korea, and Japan, the place the state actively directs know-how improvement.
Regardless of this similarity, an important distinction stays. Whereas East Asian fashions usually encourage startups to collaborate with established large corporations to bolster nationwide tech giants, India’s model of startup capitalism prioritizes unbiased development, guaranteeing that startups retain autonomy whereas benefiting from state-backed assist.
This progressive method to startup capitalism is especially evident in India’s technique for reaching a homegrown foundational AI mannequin. The federal government has dedicated to offering direct and substantial funding to compete with international platforms like DeepSeek and ChatGPT. The state plans to supply fairness investments, positioning itself as a possible stakeholder in these startup ventures, however the central authorities has additionally allowed AI builders to hunt co-financing from enterprise capitalists and regional authorities grants. Along with offering funding, the federal government will provide computing sources at considerably sponsored charges and guarantee knowledge accessibility, as elaborated beneath, underscoring India’s distinctive strategic method.
Securing Vital Infrastructure for India’s Place within the AI Race
GPU chips have emerged as probably the most crucial AI infrastructure, offering the computational energy required for speedy knowledge processing and complex neural networks. In response to surging demand and shortages, tech powers throughout the Indo-Pacific, together with South Korea, Japan, and China, have prioritized securing their GPU provides.
Following the DeepSeek revolution, India has additionally accelerated its efforts to strengthen the GPU provide chain to make sure that Indian startups stay aggressive in AI improvement. On this context, India has dedicated to securing greater than 18,000 GPUs, a big enhance from the ten,000 GPUs obtainable within the pre-DeepSeek period. This dedication displays India’s ambition to boost its computational energy and compete with america and China in AI development.
As noted by Vaishnaw, India has secured various GPUs far above the computational capability of DeepSeek and corresponding to that of ChatGPT: “DeepSeek AI was skilled on 2,000 GPUs, ChatGPT was skilled on 25,000 GPUs, and we now have 15,000 high-end GPUs obtainable.” Moreover, the federal government has pledged to make obtainable a variety of chips, together with Nvidia A100 and H100 fashions, that are tough for China to entry attributable to export controls imposed by america. Indian authorities have chosen 10 Indian firms to provide and procure GPUs, strengthening the nation’s AI infrastructure for future developments.
The target is to offer computational energy to Indian startups at a considerably decrease value – under 100 rupees (about $1.20) per unit – in comparison with the worldwide market charge of $2 to $3, with authorities subsidies masking 40 p.c of the fee. To handle these efforts effectively, the federal government has additionally launched a centralized AI computing portal, known as IndiaAI Compute, to streamline GPU allocation and optimize AI-related infrastructure.
Unlocking Knowledge to Compete within the World AI Race: India’s AIKosha Initiative
The accessibility of knowledge is important for competing successfully within the international AI race. The USA has achieved important success in AI, largely because of the huge quantities of knowledge collected in English, which have supported the coaching of subtle AI fashions. Equally, China has quickly superior in AI improvement by leveraging intensive knowledge sources that allow Chinese language firms to compete extra carefully with their U.S. counterparts. In opposition to this backdrop, there was growing demand from AI startups and coverage specialists in India for the Indian authorities to open up and share the substantial knowledge sources it holds.
Responding to this rising want from India’s non-public sector, and following the current improvement of DeepSeek, the Indian authorities launched the IndiaAI Dataset Platform, often called AIKosha, on March 6, 2025 – an initiative aimed toward establishing a unified platform for complete entry to datasets, AI instruments, and fashions. AIKosha addresses the present gaps in India’s AI infrastructure, offering seamless entry to high-quality, non-personal datasets. By doing so, it allows Indian academia, researchers, startups, and industries to speed up innovation and compete extra successfully on a world scale.
Trying Forward: Sustaining India’s AI Ambitions Amid Persistent Challenges
DeepSeek has considerably remodeled India’s notion of the AI race, prompting the Indian state to actively reposition itself in international AI competitors. Nonetheless, important challenges stay for India to realize substantial outcomes in AI improvement.
Securing a aggressive place in international AI innovation requires a sustained, long-term technique for nurturing high-tech industries. Right here, India can draw worthwhile insights from East Asia’s profitable fashions, significantly from international locations like China, South Korea, and Taiwan, which developed their AI and semiconductor sectors via a transparent long-term imaginative and prescient, constant authorities assist, and shut collaboration between state establishments and personal enterprises. These East Asian nations succeeded by aligning sustained governmental assist with private-sector innovation, enabling them to compete in opposition to Western tech powers that dominated high-tech industries for many years.
India’s post-DeepSeek initiatives signify a promising begin. Nonetheless, ongoing and sustained collaboration between the federal government and personal sector can be obligatory for India to implement a coherent, long-term imaginative and prescient. Solely then can India safe a significant place within the international AI race.
