India is positioning itself to dramatically scale artificial intelligence infrastructure, with compute capacity being offered at what could be among the lowest rates globally, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Jayant Chaudhary said at the India AI Summit on February 20.
Chaudhary said India currently provides compute access at around Rs 65 per hour, significantly lower than what individuals might pay for everyday services such as a cinema ticket. The move is part of the broader IndiaAI mission, which he said is expected to cross one lakh GPUs, supported through a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
He acknowledged that India has “a lot of catching up to do” in the AI race but suggested that the country may benefit from a second-mover advantage. According to him, strong top-down policy backing and leadership recognition of AI’s potential could help India leapfrog structural challenges.
“AI can help us leapfrog problems,” Chaudhary said, stressing that the technology must remain human-centric. With over a billion people, he argued, India has the opportunity to transform its demographic dividend into a generation of AI producers and innovators rather than remaining mere consumers of global technologies.
