The AI stack begins with a strong energy base, leveraging 500+ GW capacity and increasing reliance on non-fossil fuel sources.
India is building massive compute muscle with 38,000 GPUs available and 20,000 more incoming at subsidised rates for startups.
Indigenous AI initiatives like BharatGen and Bhashini aim to power large-scale applications in healthcare, agriculture, and education.
Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw has laid out the five-layered sovereign AI stack at the India AI Impact Summit 2026. This aims to position India as a global force in AI. The framework, he said, is designed to cover the entire value chain, from electricity that powers data centres to the applications that can directly help citizens’ lives.
SurveyStarting off, Vaishnaw said the base of this framework is energy. He pointed out that AI ambitions cannot be realised without dependable and scalable power. Currently, India has over 500 GW of installed capacity, with more than half coming from non-fossil fuel sources such as solar and wind. He also pointed to emerging options like small modular nuclear reactors as part of the long-term roadmap to ensure sustainable energy for compute-heavy AI workloads.
The next layer, he said, is infrastructure. It includes the physical and digital backbone supporting AI systems. India’s data centre capacity, currently under 1 GW, is projected to grow nearly tenfold by the end of the decade. This expansion will be supported by widespread 5G connectivity and strong private sector participation, creating what Vaishnaw described as the “homes and highways” of India’s AI ecosystem.
On the computing front, the government is establishing shared access to high-performance chips. As per Vaishnaw, the country already has 38,000 GPUs, with over 20,000 more on the way. Startups and researchers can use this capacity at subsidised rates, which are comparatively lower than current global costs.
Beyond hardware, India is developing its own AI models. Initiatives like BharatGen and Bhashini are working to create systems that understand India’s linguistic and cultural diversity, as well as to support hundreds of Indian language models.
At the top sits the application layer, where AI translates into public impact. From early disease detection and precision farming to personalised education tools, Vaishnaw expressed optimism that India could lead globally in deploying AI on a large scale.
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Ashish Singh
Ashish Singh is the Chief Copy Editor at Digit. He's been wrangling tech jargon since 2020 (Times Internet, Jagran English '22). When not policing commas, he's likely fueling his gadget habit with coffee, strategising his next virtual race, or plotting a road trip to test the latest in-car tech. He speaks fluent Geek. View Full Profile
