2025: The turning point in India's technological self-determination |
The year 2025 marked a defining inflection point in India’s scientific and technological journey, as the nation emerged with renewed confidence and global stature across frontier domains. It signals a fundamental reorientation in India’s relationship with technology itself. From artificial intelligence and semiconductors to space exploration, nuclear energy and critical minerals, India demonstrated that it is no longer merely adopting global technologies but shaping them. For the first time in India’s independent history, technological self-determination is not a dream but an unfolding reality, firmly aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047
AI Revolution: Powering the Digital Backbone
Under the India AI Mission, the Government of India has committed substantial investments, over ₹10,000 crore, to establish India as a pioneer in ethical, human-centric artificial intelligence. The ambition is to ensure that artificial intelligence becomes a tool for social democratization, especially across India’s vast rural-urban divide. In Q1 of FY26, India announced a significant expansion of India’s national AI infrastructure, adding 15,916 new GPUs. India’s national compute capacity has now crossed 38,000 GPUs. These GPUs are available at subsidised rates of ₹67 per hour, substantially below the average market rate of ₹115 per GPU hour. This pricing architecture is itself policy, designed to democratize access to cutting-edge compute infrastructure.
Recently India has made a remarkable leap to third place in Stanford University’s 2025 Global AI Vibrancy Tool. India ranked 3rd in AI competitiveness after the US and China. This puts India ahead of several advanced economies, including South Korea, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Canada, Germany and France. This highlights that how India’s fast-growing tech ecosystem and strong talent base are helping the country play a key role in the global AI race.
India’s New Era of Self-Reliance in Semiconductors
For the first time in India’s history, a government has made semiconductor manufacturing the centerpiece of India’s technology mission. In May 2025, India took a major step forward with the launch of two advanced facilities in Noida and Bengaluru, dedicated to 3-nanometer chip design. These facilities represent far more than manufacturing capacity; they symbolize the beginning of India’s journey from importing 90% of its semiconductor requirements to architecting its own future in this strategically critical domain.
3nm chips are the core of the world’s most advanced technologies, from smartphones and laptops to high-performance computers. The 7 nm processor is also being developed by the IIT........