Debjani Ghosh
Alok Kumar Debjani Ghosh Alok Kumar Debjani Ghosh
This begins with recognising AI as strategic national infrastructure, not merely software or applications. Its capabilities depend on an interconnected stack of semiconductors, compute, energy, networks, data, models, research and talent. Dependence at any critical layer can constrain the entire system. This is also forcing a fundamental rethink of sovereignty. Sovereignty is no longer about the ambition to build everything ourselves. It is about securing strategic autonomy across critical layers of the technology stack — the freedom to develop, deploy and secure technologies without unacceptable dependence or coercion. The ultimate objective is resilience, leverage and freedom of action. For India, the opportunity is to build where the world faces scarcity and lead where markets are yet to form. Affordable energy, dependable compute and future-ready talent are emerging strategic constraints. At the same time, robotics and physical AI, multilingual intelligence, agentic cybersecurity and trusted autonomous systems represent new markets where leadership is still being defined. India must build its leverage and advantage before these markets mature. But technological capability alone will not deliver human progress. Workers need new skills, institutions must redesign processes, and AI systems must be safe, secure and accountable. We must move beyond fragmented pilots to measurable outcomes — higher productivity, better jobs, improved public services and greater access to opportunity. This is where states have a critical role to play. And Uttar Pradesh offers a promising example of how to build the foundations for the next wave of technological and economic growth.
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The recently approved UP AI Mission, with its ambition to make five lakh young people AI fluent and create 50,000 forward-deployed AI professionals, recognises that talent development must be central to the strategy. The state’s Startup Policy 2026 strengthens this foundation through support for incubation, research commercialization, funding and market access. Perhaps one of the most consequential steps is the Startup Procurement Scheme 2026.
The recently held ET Vision Conclave in Lucknow was a powerful signal of India’s growing AI ambition. The conversation is moving well beyond applications and adoption. We are now talking about the entire AI stack — from servers and data centres to models, industry transformation and new opportunities for growth. What was even more encouraging was that the room was not just filled with the technologists, but practitioners from sectors like healthcare, bringing real-world challenges and needs into focus. Intelligence is moving from answering questions to taking action, from digital systems into the physical world through robotics, and from organising knowledge to accelerating scientific discovery. These shifts could fundamentally reshape productivity, work and public services. But technology does not automatically translate into economic progress. We need the infrastructure, institutions, skills and ecosystems to turn technological breakthroughs into widespread value. What is encouraging about UP’s approach is that the ambition extends to building the connected ecosystem needed for innovation to thrive. The state is bringing together several critical foundations: industry-ready talent, deep-tech research and infrastructure, a stronger startup ecosystem, access to capital and, importantly, procurement reforms that can make government an early customer for innovation. The planned deep-tech U-Hubs in Noida and Lucknow, together with the proposed AI City and robotics infrastructure, can create opportunities to connect universities, researchers, startups and industry around emerging technologies. By creating pathways for eligible startups to sell innovative solutions directly to government, including higher procurement limits for sunrise sectors such as AI and deep tech, UP is addressing one of the biggest challenges innovators face: finding their first customer. The real opportunity lies in connecting these initiatives into one powerful ecosystem. Where universities develop industry-ready talent, researchers and startups build new technologies, industry brings real-world problems and market opportunities, investors provide the capital to scale, and government creates the conditions for innovation to succeed and transform into forces of national productivity. UP has the scale, talent, industrial base and diversity of real-world challenges to become an important proving ground for this model. The next step is execution — ensuring these initiatives work together and translate into globally competitive enterprises, new jobs and measurable improvements in people’s lives. Finally, the real test of AI leadership is not how much intelligence we create, but how much human progress we enable. That is the opportunity for UP, and for India. (Alok Kumar is principal secretary, IT and electronics, UP, and Debjani Ghosh is a distinguished fellow, NITI Aayog and member of UP AI Mission Governing Council)
Perhaps the strongest signal was the willingness to invest across the stack, think beyond today’s use cases and build for tomorrow’s opportunities. The AI of tomorrow will be very different from the AI of today.