Integrated Strategic Dialogue | India’s AI Trajectory | India's AI Gambit

Описание: Integrated Strategic Dialogue: India’s AI Trajectory — Capability, Institutions & Strategic Choice

In this high-stakes panel from the Integrated Strategic Dialogue, leaders from India’s defence, science, and AI research ecosystem examine how India should navigate the next phase of its AI journey—across capability, national security, institutional design, and strategic autonomy.

Moderated by policy analyst and author Anirudh Suri, the conversation features:
Air Marshal S. P. Dharkar (Retd.), Former Vice Chief of the Air Staff
Dr. Preeti Banzal, Senior Scientist & Adviser, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser
Prof. Manan Suri, Professor, IIT Delhi

Together, they explore three big questions shaping India’s AI trajectory:
Where does India stand on foundational AI capabilities? (compute, data, skills, capital, R&D)
How is AI reshaping national security? Where are the gaps—and how fast must India move?
What institutional architecture can help India succeed? Centralized? Decentralized? Hybrid?

The result is an unusually candid, sharply specific conversation on what India must do now to build sovereign capability, accelerate cross-institutional collaboration, and avoid strategic dependency.

Watch this panel to understand how India’s AI future will be shaped at the intersection of science, security, state capacity, and industry innovation.

00:00 – Opening remarks & panel framing
00:31 – Three big questions shaping India’s AI trajectory
01:28 – India’s AI foundation: compute, data, talent, capital (Prof. Manan Suri)
04:05 – The five pillars of AI capability: data, algorithms, compute, skills, policy
05:41 – Do we really have the data & talent we think we have?
07:06 – Data as national leverage, not just research fuel
08:27 – Are we focusing on the wrong parts of AI? Beyond LLMs
09:29 – The future: energy-efficient AI, neuromorphic, photonic, edge compute
10:24 – Dr. Preeti Bansal: India’s R&D ecosystem & the India AI Mission
12:13 – Government’s resource role: 38,000+ GPUs, R&D funds, centers of excellence
14:23 – Can India match US/China scale? Or should we focus on the growth gradient?
17:00 – Emerging focus on SLMs and agentic AI systems
18:26 – India’s strengths: DPI-scale compute, skilling, safe & trusted AI
20:29 – Air Marshal Dharkar: AI and national security
21:52 – Where India lags—and why acceleration is essential
23:05 – The talent challenge inside the armed forces
24:20 – Partnering with private sector: trust, regulation & speed
27:12 – Technology in modern warfare: drones, sensors, satellites, cyber
28:45 – Balancing strategic autonomy with cutting-edge imports
30:34 – How much should India invest? Why AI spend may need a 100× jump
32:01 – New domains: cyber, cognitive warfare, information warfare
33:24 – All-of-nation vs all-of-government approach
34:10 – Audience interventions: strategic autonomy, talent, singularity
37:40 – The road ahead: cross-institutional collaboration
39:00 – Who should drive India’s AI strategy? Centralized vs decentralized models
45:04 – Final reflections: probabilistic technologies require new assessment models