India made a strong and confident entry at the World Economic Forum in Davos as Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw positioned the country among the first group of global AI powers during a high-level panel discussion titled “AI Power Play”.
The discussion focused on the geopolitics of artificial intelligence, its economic implications, governance challenges and pathways for inclusive and large-scale adoption. The panel was moderated by Mr Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group, and featured Ms Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Mr Brad Smith, President and Vice Chair of Microsoft, Mr Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Investment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Addressing the panel, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw said India has made systematic progress across all five layers of the AI ecosystem — applications, models, chips, infrastructure and energy — placing it firmly among AI-ready nations. He stressed that India’s AI strategy is focused on real-world deployment and return on investment rather than building excessively large models.
The Minister said nearly 95 percent of real-world use cases can be addressed by models in the 20 to 50 billion parameter range, and India has already developed a range of efficient and cost-effective AI models being deployed across sectors. He underlined that India is offering maximum return at low cost in the era of the Fifth Industrial Revolution by prioritising economically sustainable AI solutions.
Highlighting India’s growing global standing, Shri Vaishnaw said global benchmarks show India ranked third in AI penetration and preparedness and second in AI talent. He added that artificial intelligence is democratising technology in India and helping deliver efficient public and private services at scale.
To address infrastructure constraints, particularly GPU availability, the Minister outlined the Government’s public-private partnership initiative under which 38,000 GPUs have been empanelled as a shared national compute facility. These resources are being subsidised and made available to students, researchers and startups at nearly one-third of prevailing global costs. He also highlighted the nationwide AI skilling programme aimed at training 10 million people to enable effective adoption of AI across industry and startups.
On governance, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasised India’s techno-legal approach to AI regulation. He said governance cannot rely on law alone and must be supported by technical tools capable of detecting bias, authenticating deepfakes with court-admissible accuracy and ensuring safe deployment through mechanisms such as unlearning. He said India is actively developing indigenous technological safeguards to build trust in AI systems.
Other panelists acknowledged India’s expanding role in the global AI landscape. Mr Ian Bremmer observed that India has emerged as a major geopolitical and technological force over the past decade, while representatives from global institutions and industry noted that India’s emphasis on diffusion, accessibility and sovereign capability offers a compelling model for emerging economies.
India’s participation at Davos underscored its ambition to shape global AI discourse through scalable, inclusive and economically grounded innovation, positioning the country as a trusted and influential player in the evolving global AI order.
