Hello everyone, my name is Rohit and today, let's talk about something important.

Can India really succeed in the AI race?

Now look, being optimistic is good. If China can do it, then yes, India can too. We also have a huge number of skilled developers and researchers.

So yes.. we can do it. Absolutely.

And it's not like the Indian government or private companies aren't trying. They are making efforts to ensure that India has its own AI ecosystem. But! but! but! it's not as easy as it looks. The problems behind this are much deeper. That's why I want you to read till the end, because I'm going to talk about not just the problem, but also the possible solutions.

Let's talk about one Indian AI startup: Sarvam AI.

Right now, it's one of the leading AI companies from India. And yes, it's backed by the Indian government as well.

The word "Sarvam" means everything, and it comes from Sanskrit.

The main goal of Sarvam AI is to build an AI that truly represents India's diverse languages, ethics, cultures, and history. Because the truth is, most Western AI models either misrepresent India or just ignore us completely. And that's a real problem.

Sarvam AI is a Bangalore-based startup, founded in July 2023. So if you think about it, it hasn't even been 2 full years since they started.

When it comes to funding, they're doing fairly well. As of May 2025, Sarvam AI has raised $53.6 million, and the company's valuation is around $111 million.

Recently, Sarvam AI open-sourced one of their models called "Sarvam-M." This is being pitched as India's flagship AI model, and it has 24 billion parameters.

But here's something important: In the documentation, it was clearly mentioned that the model is built using a smaller model from a French AI company called Mistral AI

So to put it simply.. they took an AI model from Mistral, and customized it for Indian use cases.

When Sarvam-M was open-sourced, a venture capitalist named Deedy Das tweeted something.

He said that Sarvam AI had open-sourced their flagship AI model and in 2 days, it got only 23 downloads. Now compare that with two Korean college students who open-sourced a model that one got around 2 lakh downloads in the past month.

So just imagine: India's top AI model gets 23 downloads in 2 days, while a student-built model gets 2 lakh? embarrassing

After that, people in the Indian AI community started giving their opinions. Some supported Deedy. Some were against him.

But honestly the problem is not whether Deedy should have said that or not.

The real problem is this:

👉 Do we, as Indians, truly support our own AI startups?

Because what usually happens is when something like this goes viral, suddenly everyone starts feeling super patriotic. We go on social media and start saying things like:

• "Boycott China!"
• "Boycott Western products!"

But tell me honestly, how many of us actually say:

• "Support Indian products."

And I have some very real reasons why I believe that maybe India will never be able to lead the global AI race.

Before I talk about AI, let's talk about some key products.

Let's look at the products we use daily, the ones we depend on, but don't even realize how much we rely on the West for them.

• Social Media? Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X), Reddit, YouTube.. not a single one is Indian.
• Messaging apps? WhatsApp dominates everything.
• Smartphones and their operating systems? Either Chinese or American. Even the software (OS) is theirs.
• Search? Google is the undisputed king.
• AI? ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic, Meta all US-based.

Now think about this seriously.

What if our relationship with Western countries breaks down?

What if they stop supporting us?

No social media. No messaging. No phones. No search. No AI. Nothing.

So the obvious question is: Why don't we build our own alternatives?

Do Indian companies or the government not think about this?

You see, India has tried to build its own tech ecosystem before but most of it failed. And it's not always because of bad products. A big part of the reason is us, the users.

Let's start with one of India's earliest tech unicorns: a startup called Hike.

It was a messaging app, kind of like WhatsApp. At one point, Hike was valued at $1 billion, and yes it was one of India's unicorns.

In 2016, Hike had over 100 million users. And it wasn't a boring app, it had everything:

• Digital payments
• Fun stickers made for Indian languages
• News updates
• Even some social media features

Believe it or not, many features from Hike were later copied by WhatsApp.

But then, things went downhill.

Why?

Because we Indians have a strange obsession with Western products. Even though Hike was full of features, people used it only for extras and continued using WhatsApp for actual messaging.

WhatsApp became a part of daily language. Hike didn't.

And when Indian users themselves don't support Indian apps it's only a matter of time before the company shuts down.

That's exactly what happened.

This didn't just happen with Hike.

We also tried to build our own search engine called Guruji.com. (Do you even remember this name?)

That failed too.

Then there were Indian smartphone brands like Micromax, Lava, Intex. They were doing well once but now? Almost gone from the market.

Micromax even made a solid comeback, launching a 5G phone under ₹10,000. But still, they're barely surviving.

Now let's talk about social media.

India launched Koo a Twitter-like app. It started in 2020 and shut down in 2024.

Why? Again.. lack of support.

So if you look closely, India has tried to build all the essentials:

• Messaging apps ✅
• Search engines ✅
• Smartphones ✅
• Social media platforms ✅

And yet, most of them failed. Not because they were terrible but because they never got enough love or support from us.

Now, the next wave of technology is here and it's called AI.

Right now, yes we are behind. There's no doubt about that. But that doesn't mean we'll always be behind. We can lead if the right support system is in place.

Let's come back to Sarvam AI

It's only a 2-year-old startup. So if we expect them to suddenly build something like ChatGPT, that's just.. unrealistic.

But still, it's our duty to support Indian AI startups.

Why?

Because when we use their products:

• They get more users
• They get more data
• They can show investors that people actually care
• And then they can secure more funding

More funding means faster tech development. It's a chain reaction.

Now let's talk about the government's role.

Look, I'm not a politics expert. But here's my honest opinion:

The central government can't directly ban foreign apps like ChatGPT because that would cause huge backlash and also mess with foreign relations.

Imagine if Modi ji suddenly announced:

"From tonight at 8 PM, ChatGPT is banned."

You can guess the kind of chaos that would create.

But here's an idea.

State governments can take action.

Let's say Bihar decides:

"From now on, no foreign AI tools allowed in this state. Only Sarvam AI or other Indian AIs are permitted."

No one can really stop them, because state governments have their own powers. Even if foreign pressure comes, Modi ji can say:

"Oh, I don't know why Bihar is doing this. Let's talk to them."

And guess what? That "talk" and negotiation can take years.

Meanwhile, Bihar can take action immediately:

• Give premium Sarvam AI access to all school students
• Train people on how to use AI
• Teach how to write prompts
• Start early AI education programs backed by the government

But this approach only works if Sarvam AI reaches ChatGPT-level capability.

Meaning, it should be able to:

• Generate text
• Write code
• Create images
• Generate videos
• Do deep search queries

If people feel like "Yeah, this works fine. This is just as good as the foreign ones" then they won't mind switching.

But above all this..

We, the people, need to support Indian startups. come on!!

AI is extremely powerful and if we don't support our own tools right now, and keep relying only on foreign platforms, we'll fall behind.

And this time, coming back won't be easy.

If you found this article helpful, do share it with others. Let's start conversations that actually matter. And if you're new to my work, I create content about AI and tech.