With over 5 million IT workers and a growing focus on artifical intelligence (AI) in education, Indiaseems to be in an ideal position for what is shaping up to be a global race in AI technology. But while the US set the AI standard with ChatGPT in 2023, and China quickly closed the gap with its powerful chatbot DeepSeek, India has yet to produce an equivalent Large Language Model (LLM) that can mimic human communication.

And it's not for lack of ambition. According to data from market intelligence firm Tracxn, the Indian AI sector includes 7,114 startups that have collectively raised $23 billion (€20.15 billion) in equity funding so far. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet approved the IndiaAI Mission initiative with a budget of nearly $1.21 billion, aiming to "undertake the development and deployment of indigenous Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) and domain-specific foundational models in critical sectors."

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This week, IndiaAI Mission CEO Abhishek Singh said Indian startups need to think beyond their home turf to compete and succeed against global giants.

"They will have to ultimately compete with the best in the world," Singh said at........

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