OIa founder calls to create India's own AI stack, use DPI to build datasets

To be leaders on the AI front, Aggarwal elucidated that the country needs the government and the industry to adopt AI applications

Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal has advocated for the creation of an independent artificial intelligence (AI) stack in India as other global majors accelerate investments in new technologies, research, infrastructure, and talent.

In a blog post, the cab aggregator and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer highlighted that acceleration in AI technologies will disrupt current job markets and replace many existing roles with new ones.

“India's unique strengths - one of the world's largest pools of developers, the highest number of silicon designers globally, an enormous amount of data generated, and the largest IT industry worldwide - position us to lead in AI. We can transform India into the world's AI powerhouse, just as China revolutionised global manufacturing,” he said.

Aggarwal has called out the need to intensify the use of India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) to build necessary datasets.

“...we can build on our DPI success such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to create the world's largest open-source artificial intelligence, firmly grounded in Indian ethos and values,” he said.

To be leaders on the AI front, he elucidated that the country needs the government and the industry to adopt AI applications. 

Aggarwal cautioned about having limited data centre capacity compared to other global peers. 

“Currently, India has only 1 GW (gigawatt) of data centre capacity, while the global capacity is 50 GW. By 2030, projections show the US at 70 GW, China at 30 GW, and India at 5 GW if we maintain our current trajectory,” he said.

To tackle the challenge, the country will need to accelerate the deployment of cutting-edge process fabs (less than 3 nanometers), he said.

Similarly, his blog has highlighted the need to prioritise AI and new energy as foundational technologies, and investing in these segments would pave India’s way to ‘becoming a $50 trillion economy’ by 2047.

“We need to create our own playbook for technological advancement - one that addresses our unique challenges and leverages our strengths. It's about using tech not just for economic growth, but for societal transformation,” he added.