Rejecting Silicon Valley stock market hype, India’s MeitY is funding 20 indigenous models and leveraging open-source tech to insulate its economy from tightening US export controls.
A senior official from India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has announced a two-pronged national strategy focused heavily on open-source and homegrown AI models. Speaking to PTI, the official explained that this policy shift comes in response to tighter US export controls and access restrictions on advanced “frontier” AI technologies, which have been curtailed globally due to national security concerns.
India’s strategy aims to insulate the country from being left vulnerable by future international access restrictions. The MeitY official highlighted that while proprietary foreign frontier models may represent “100 per cent capability”, publicly available open-source and domestic Indian models are already “60-70-80 per cent capable” compared to those frontier systems.According to the ministry, this capability threshold is more than powerful enough to handle a substantial share of real-world enterprise, administrative, and development workloads.
The government highlighted critical baseline capabilities it must possess natively, specifically naming AI systems capable of testing for and patching vulnerabilities in existing software code. Under the official state-backed IndiaAI Mission, the government is actively funding and supporting the development of 20 indigenous AI models to systematically narrow the gap with global leaders.
The official emphasised that India’s AI roadmap is designed to generate tangible economic value by raising productivity and efficiency in the real sectors of the economy. The state explicitly stated its goal is driven by real-world outcome delivery rather than chasing stock market enthusiasm. Commenting on recent volatility in global tech shares, the official noted that market valuations and investor optimism have historically been disproportionately concentrated around a very small handful of companies involved in advanced AI chips, foundation models, and raw infrastructure.
