Rise of Sovereign AI

• Sovereign AI is rising as nations attempt to reduce dependence on global AI superpowers.
• This shift is driven by intensifying U.S.–China competition for global AI dominance.
• Several countries, including India, are pursuing sovereign AI to remain secure and competitive.
  • Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s ability to produce artificial intelligence using its own infrastructure, data, and workforce.

Why Countries Are Pursuing Sovereign AI

• Countries seek sovereign AI for economic advantage, as AI is projected to generate trillions of dollars in global economic value.
• Current AI-driven economic benefits largely flow to the Global North, disadvantaging the Global South.
• Countries are also pursuing sovereign AI for strategic autonomy, which refers to independence in economic and military decision-making.
• AI is increasingly becoming a pillar of economic power, influencing productivity and competitiveness.
• AI is simultaneously becoming a pillar of military power, shaping surveillance, defence systems, and warfare.
• Nations do not want to depend on the U.S. or China for foundational AI models.
• Nations also want to avoid reliance on foreign computing power, which is essential for training and deploying large AI models.
• Countries seek data sovereignty, which means keeping sensitive national data within domestic control.
  • Sensitive data includes citizens’ data, which contains personal and demographic information.
  • It includes defence data, which relates to security operations and military systems.
  • It includes infrastructure data, which covers critical systems such as transport, power, and telecom.
  • It includes healthcare data, which contains medical records and public-health information.
  • Countries worry that such data may be processed by foreign AI models such as ChatGPT or Grok.
• Nations also pursue sovereign AI to ensure cultural preservation, which involves protecting local languages and traditions.
• Sovereign AI allows Large Language Models (LLMs) to be trained on local datasets such as dialects and cultural practices.
• These models help promote inclusiveness, ensuring representation of diverse communities.
• These models also help revitalize indigenous languages, which are often underrepresented in global AI systems.

Challenges for India in Pursuing Sovereign AI

• India faces foreign dependency for critical technology, including advanced components and infrastructure.
• This dependency is especially strong in the case of silicon chips, which are essential for high-performance computing.
• India faces funding challenges, because creating large AI factories requires massive capital investments.
• Both the public sector and private sector must invest heavily at the initial stage.
• India faces a shortage of skilled workforce, especially in advanced chip manufacturing.
• India also lacks sufficient high-skill talent for AI LLM development, which requires expertise in machine learning and computational science.

BharatGen – India’s Sovereign AI Initiative

• BharatGen is India’s first sovereign, multilingual, and multimodal Large Language Model (LLM).
  • Multimodal LLM means the model can understand and generate multiple forms of data such as text, speech, and images.
• BharatGen was developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in 2025.
• The initiative operates under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS).
• The goal of BharatGen is to create a complete AI stack, which means a full set of AI tools integrating text, speech, and document vision.
• BharatGen supports 22 Indian languages, ensuring linguistic diversity and accessibility.
• BharatGen aims to assist sectors such as governance, improving public service delivery.
  • It supports industry, enhancing productivity and automation.
  • It supports education, enabling personalized learning and content creation.
  • It supports agriculture, offering advisory services to farmers.
  • It supports healthcare, improving diagnostics and patient communication.
  • It supports digital inclusion, which ensures that underserved populations benefit from AI.

Key Applications of BharatGen

• Krishi Sathi is a voice-enabled WhatsApp advisory tool for farmers.
  • Krishi Sathi helps farmers receive real-time guidance through voice interaction.
• e-VikrAI is another application of BharatGen that generates product descriptions from a single image.
• e-VikrAI helps small sellers expand their digital presence by simplifying online catalog creation.