Building AI for Bharat

By Rameesh Kailasam

India has been making steady progress in its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts, with a democratised approach through “AI for All” that encompasses a supportive policy. The efforts of the government like the IndiaAI Mission, IndiaAI Compute, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing, IndiaAI Innovation Centre, IndiaAI Datasets Platform, and IndiaAI Applications Development Initiative are focused in the right direction.

Complementing this are efforts from the start-up ecosystem with the likes of Krutrim and Sarvam AI that are aiming in the direction of large language models (LLMs). Krutrim developed its own foundational LLM trained on a vast data set of Indian languages and contextual data, enabling accurate text generation and conversational AI in various Indian languages. They recently launched “Kruti”, an agentic AI assistant. Sarvam AI is focused on making generative AI for Bharat and aims to build the “full-stack” for generative AI. They also launched models like Sarvam-M.

For the first time, India is developing a foundational AI model that will be run entirely on domestic infrastructure—a significant leap towards Atmanirbhar Bharat. And importantly, it will enable the country to develop strategic autonomy in one of the most critical emerging technologies of our time. While India grows in its AI journey there are emerging market access challenges that could impact the pace and scale, due to geopolitics and issues that may occur in future like US export controls.

India remains in the tier-II category for chip exports, which translates into caps on quantity of advanced chips. The global demand for high-end AI chips is surging, which itself puts pressure on chip manufacturers to meet the demand. The cost of acquiring and maintaining large-scale graphics processing unit infrastructure remains a significant financial hurdle. There may be a need to create a remarkable fund of funds if India has to get anywhere near the global story and maybe explore manufacturing chips for these domestically.

In terms of scale and impact, what could offer a greater opportunity than agriculture in our country to showcase and use the power of AI? With nearly 46.1% of the population engaged in agriculture and allied activities, the use of AI not only makes sense but is also essential to unlock maximum value in the sector. So what can AI do for farmers?

To answer that, we must first understand the complex and evolving challenges they face. From the escalating effects of climate change and shrinking landholdings to degraded resources and unpredictable market dynamics, farmers are facing a host of issues. Low productivity, especially among smallholders, poses serious risks to farmer incomes, rural stability, and even the nation’s food and nutritional security.

Thankfully, meaningful progress has already been made at the intersection of AI and agriculture offering a road map that new kids on the block can learn from. Even conventional sectoral companies like ITC has been doing pioneering work in integrating AI with sustainable farming practices to build a resilient, demand-driven agricultural ecosystem. Their approach doesn’t just boost productivity; it aligns with critical national goals such as doubling farmers’ incomes and initiatives like More Crop, Per Drop.

At the heart of this transformation is ITC MAARS (Meta Market for Advanced Agricultural Rural Services). It is a first-of-its-kind “phygital” platform that blends physical presence with digital intelligence. This platform delivers AI-enabled personalised crop advisories, image-based diagnostics, precision input planning, and real-time marketplace access directly to farmers’ fingertips. By equipping farmers with actionable insights and access to quality inputs and tools, the platform empowers them to make smarter decisions and increase their yields sustainably. In terms of scale, more than two million farmers across 2,050 farmer producer organisations in 11 states have benefitted from the initiative by ITC.

By enabling hyper-personalised, conversational access to critical farming knowledge, intelligent platforms should be able to transform Indian agriculture, making it smarter, more sustainable, and future-ready. The endeavour should be focused on delivering relevant actionable insights to Indian farmers across regions and the multitude of languages that they speak.

AI is now taking over key functions and India is geared to leverage its potential—whether it is agriculture, healthcare services, education, urban development, financial services, logistics, mobility, public safety or even empowering environment sustainability.

The generation of yesterday across different strata of society is digital-ready, and any AI development in the country has to take them into consideration. So, can AI progress in our country and deliver for Bharat? Surely it can.

As a nation, we have some of the brightest minds in the world. If AI can be used to boost intelligent agriculture, we can become a self-reliant nation where we can boost farmer incomes and productivity.

The writer is CEO, Indiatech.org.

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