India’s foray into data sovereignty must include artificial intelligence

India’s technological progress in recent times has been underrated considering the success of the integrated payments network being used in millions of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) payments every day. Unfortunately, while one of the recent national goals has been to digitise absolutely everything, services, and not IT products, remain the mainstay of India’s tech industry.

Even attempts to come up with indigenised products such as Koo have eventually ended in facing issues with economies of scale. There are those attempting to breach that frontier from India and doing it differently. The way that TikTok took over was not by competing with Instagram in images; it went all in on short-form videos.

However, the next frontier is not simply about access; it is also about control. Sovereign AI is no longer a luxury or an abstract aspiration. The idea of data being manipulated at an unimaginable scale to feed not only brands, but also nations that control them, should concern users and governments both. The focus on making AI sovereign is a national security imperative.

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While Indians have always formed a massive audience for technology markets, be they the latest mobile phones or users of knowledge-sharing sites such as Quora, Medium, or X, they also remain at the mercy of the viewpoints promoted by the nations that control them and their data.

With all the questioning that DeepSeek went through, it refused to acknowledge Tiananmen Square as historically significant. There have also been umpteen cases where Indian users are constantly showcased maps without parts of Jammu and Kashmir or Arunachal Pradesh. These are not trivial digital glitches without real-life repercussions.

An Israeli representative was called out recently by hordes of Indians on the internet for using the incorrect map of India in a message that, ironically, praised the country. Such examples are a glimpse into how algorithmic systems can encode and spread geopolitical positions under the guise of neutral technology. Meanwhile, the United States and its corporate giants like OpenAI, Meta and Google have their own monopolistic grip. To depend on either axis is to risk ceding not just digital autonomy but also informational sovereignty.

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An AI that speaks to Indian users in their languages, through their preferred modes of communication, and without being filtered through foreign interests would certainly propel India to the forefront of AI usage with fewer concerns about national interest.

Structural biases in how data is presented mean that the stakes are higher than most policymakers admit. An India that depends on foreign AI systems risks embedding such bias in everything from education and entertainment to defence and diplomacy, which is already well noted with search engines as a massive problem.

Algorithms are opaque and controlled by the nations that build them. China understood this early. The state has poured billions into AI development, not only to dominate future industries but also to ensure its worldview is baked into the digital layer that billions interact with daily. The United States, through Silicon Valley, has pursued a different but equally aggressive path: control the platforms, set the standards, and dictate the flow of information.

India, despite its size and talent pool, has often played catch-up. It took a domestic telecom disruptor, Jio, to make the internet affordable. It took UPI to prove that payments infrastructure could be radically simplified. It took quick commerce startups to reshape consumer behaviour. The next decisive shift will be mass AI adoption, and without sovereign systems, India risks becoming a permanent consumer rather than a producer.

The gamble is exciting when early results boost confidence. Nearly a million Indians use the AI every month, according to the data, and more than 60 per cent are first-time AI users. In smaller towns, people interact in their own languages, often through voice notes.

Building sovereign AI requires capital as well as state support and policy clarity. Foreign firms rarely lose while exploiting regulatory loopholes or buying influence. This is something that a homegrown brand cannot afford, and those in charge of policy must ask themselves if India is prepared to treat AI as a strategic sector akin to defence.

After all, Koo could not survive in a landscape where X operated across nations and their governments. Had governmental announcements been made even five minutes in advance on Koo as on X, it would have forced massive populations of journalists, think tanks and other Indians to migrate to the platform.

So far, such policy conversations have been limited to data protection, digital public infrastructure, and startup promotion. The urgency of sovereign AI has not yet entered the mainstream political agenda.

With the rapid progress of AI across the world, but especially in the world’s two largest economies, the timeline to determine policy and extend support is shorter in India. AI systems evolve in months, and to miss a window would be to accept longer-term dependence, either on Washington’s corporate giants or Beijing’s state-directed models. The next decade may decide whether India is an AI leader or an AI colony; much like skipping out on not just creation but even control of search algorithms has caused a lack of Indian imprint on global information consumption.

The risks of dependency are undeniable. It would be exciting to note if entrepreneurs take up such nationally relevant causes and enable an ecosystem that aids the survival of digital Indianness, and if investors and policymakers realise the seriousness enough to buy into a dream.

The author is a columnist at several Indian publications, and hosts a podcast on geopolitics and culture. She writes about international relations, public policy and history, and posts on X on her handle @sagorika_s. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.