October 11, 2026
Researcher Dhruv Atreja called for India to avoid falling into the trap of relying on American or Chinese technology in the artificial intelligence sector, stressing in an article published by the South China Morning Post the importance of building local capabilities that allow New Delhi to use available models, adapt them, operate them, and test them independently to protect its national interests.
The report explained that US restrictions on exporting technology represent a threat to cut off access to advanced models, citing the incident last June that led to a temporary suspension of access to two models belonging to the Anthropic company before restoring it in July, which reflects the extent to which India’s future is affected by political decisions in Washington.
On the other hand, the article pointed out that open Chinese models offer low-cost alternatives that can be modified and operated locally without constant dependency on an external supplier, but they pose the problem of reflecting Chinese political sensitivities. This is evidenced by the refusal of the “DeepSeek” chatbot to answer about India’s sovereignty over the disputed “Arunachal Pradesh” region.
The report warned of the dangers of relying on either power in managing vital and sensitive sectors such as banks, courts, and public services, stressing that the Indian strategy should not be limited to competing with major global models, but rather go beyond it to possess operational sovereignty that ensures verification of performance and meeting national needs in isolation from external pressures.
As part of efforts to enhance technological independence, the report pointed to the plans of the emerging “Sarvam AI” company and the government “BharatGen” initiative to develop models of up to one trillion parameters. He also touched on reports that the Indian government is considering pumping investments worth up to 200 billion rupees (about 2.08 billion dollars) into a new fund for advanced artificial intelligence, in addition to the previous funding allocated to the “India AI Mission” for the year 2024, amounting to 103.7 billion rupees.
The article concluded that the most prominent challenge facing New Delhi goes beyond merely possessing advanced technologies, but lies in securing its digital future and protecting it from becoming hostage to political restrictions and decisions imposed by external powers.
