Vaishnaw challenges IMF chief’s ‘second-tier’ tag for India’s AI at Davos

Union minister for electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday strongly rejected the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) view that India belongs to a second tier of artificial intelligence (AI) economies, asserting that the country is firmly placed in the top global group.

Speaking at a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel in Davos, Vaishnaw questioned the basis of the IMF’s classification and cited independent global assessments to back India’s position. “I don’t know what the IMF criteria have been, but Stanford places India third in terms of AI penetration, AI preparedness and AI talent,” he said.

India is in the first tier

Addressing IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva directly during the discussion, the minister said India’s placement in the second tier was inaccurate. “I don’t think your classification in the second tier is right. It’s actually in the first,” he remarked.

Vaishnaw outlined India’s end-to-end strategy across the five key layers of the AI ecosystem — applications, models, chips, infrastructure and energy. He said India is making steady progress in each of these areas, with the aim of building long-term technological independence in a rapidly changing global landscape.

Not copying US or China

India’s approach, he said, is not about copying the US or China model. Instead, the country is charting its own path, focusing on practical deployment, scalability and economic impact. According to him, this strategy is aligned with India’s strengths in software, services and talent.

At the application level, Vaishnaw said India is well positioned to become the world’s largest supplier of AI-driven services. He explained that real value creation in AI comes from understanding enterprise needs and delivering targeted solutions, rather than only building extremely large models.

“Return on investment does not come from creating very large models,” he said, adding that nearly 95 percent of AI use cases can be addressed using models with 20 billion to 50 billion parameters.

A bouquet of AI models

The minister noted that India already has a “bouquet” of such AI models, which are being deployed across sectors to improve productivity and efficiency. The government’s priority, he said, is to ensure that AI adoption spreads widely across the domestic economy.

Vaishnaw reiterated that India’s position as the fastest-growing major economy is strongly supported by its deep and globally recognised talent pool, which continues to rank high in international assessments.

(By arrangement with livemint.com)