Public-Private Partnership Crucial to Developing India's Sovereign Artificial Intelligence Capabilities, Says Pratyush Kumar

India's AI Ecosystem: Building Sovereign Capabilities through Public-Private Partnerships

February 28, 2026

At the Rising Bharat Summit in Delhi, Pratyush Kumar, cofounder of Sarvam, emphasized the importance of developing sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in India, particularly through strong public-private partnerships. This approach will enable the country to build a robust AI infrastructure, mitigating reliance on foreign firms dominating the frontier AI models market.

Growing Geopolitical Competition

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As India accelerates efforts to develop domestic AI infrastructure, the country must consider the strategic implications of AI models, which are increasingly underpinning economic, enterprise, and national systems. Kumar noted that these models have become critical components of modern life, making it essential for countries to develop independent capabilities. The dominance of US-based firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic in the frontier AI models market has sparked concerns about India's dependence on foreign technology.

Sarvam's AI Capabilities

Sarvam, a Bengaluru-based startup, has made significant strides in building its own large language models, trained from scratch using in-house data and engineering. The company has released models, including a 30-billion-parameter voice-optimised model and a 105-billion-parameter model, which is globally competitive in its class. Sarvam has also developed multilingual speech recognition and text-to-speech models supporting over 20 Indian languages and is building AI hardware, including smart glasses manufactured in India, to expand accessibility.

Scaling Deployment and Strengthening Domestic Capabilities

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Kumar highlighted that India has already demonstrated its ability to build foundational AI models and must now focus on scaling deployment and strengthening domestic capabilities. By doing so, the country can ensure that AI is developed and deployed in a manner that serves national interests, providing a sovereign alternative to foreign models.