NEW DELHI: In a major testament to the emerging and world-class capabilities of India in the domain of Artificial Intelligence(AI), Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw asserted India as the “top-tier” AI power. With this, the Minister debunked the IMF myth which said India is a “second-tier” AI power. The Managing Director of the IMF reiterated India as a “second-tier” country in the global Artificial Intelligence ecosystem during a panel discussion in Davos on the sidelines of the 56th meeting of the World Economic Forum(WEF), which is being held from January 19 to 23.
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund(IMF), Kristalina Georgieva reiterated that India is a “second tier” AI power. Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw immediately interrupted and corrected the wrong or baseless claims. By quoting the Stanford research and AI ranking data, the Minister firmly exclaimed that India is one among the leading global AI powers, and in fact, New Delhi is in the third position in terms of globally renowned and emerging players in Artificial Intelligence.
“I don’t know what the IMF criteria is but Stanford places India at (position) third in the world for AI preparedness. I don’t think your classification is correct, India should be viewed clearly in the first group of AI nations”, Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw asserted. When the Managing Director of the IMF said that India is lagging behind in the global AI race and is not competing with the global AI powers such as the United States, China and other European nations, Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw questioned the evidence or basis for such a statement. Meanwhile, by illustrating the Stanford ranking, the Minister highlighted India’s achievements in the domain of Artificial Intelligence.
The Minister hailed India’s swift AI penetration, a sound policy ecosystem to foster world-class AI ventures, and the vast pool of skilled human resources in the country to nurture a robust Artificial Intelligence paradigm that will set global examples. “Stanford places India as third in terms of AI penetration, in terms of AI preparedness and in terms of AI talent. Actually, on AI talent, it is number two. So, I don’t think your classification in the second bouquet is right. It’s actually in the first”, the Minister further affirmed.
India’s initiatives to harness sound AI apparatus
Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also briefly underscored the initiatives and policy decisions accelerated in India to march toward building a globally renowned AI ecosystem. He asserted that India is building capabilities in every sector of AI and across the AI value chain and not just focusing on a few and isolated areas. India’s AI push spreads to “five layers of the AI architecture”, the Minister explained. These five layers include applications, models, chips, AI infrastructure and energy. “We are working on all the five layers, making very good progress in all five layers”, said Ashwini Vaishnaw.
India is working on all 5 layers of the AI architecture: application, model, chip, infra and energy. We are building the foundation for global AI services.
📍 World Economic Forum, Davos pic.twitter.com/27lIbUBOl0
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) January 21, 2026
AI Application yields economic benefit
The Minister further reiterated that among the five layers India has the biggest advantage in the “Application layer”, where Artificial Intelligence can be used to deliver services to various domestic and international enterprises, thus huge economic returns can be gained. “On the application layer, we will probably be the biggest supplier of services to the world, go to an enterprise, understand the business of the enterprise, understand the working of that enterprise and provide that service using the AI applications. That’s going to be the biggest factor of success or successful deployment of AI, because that’s where ROI comes from”, The Minister added on the strengths of India in furnishing the world-class AI ecosystem.
“The ROI9Return on investment) doesn’t come from creating a very large model. 95 per cent of the work can happen with models which are 20 billion or 50 billion parameters. We are creating a bouquet of such models. We already have. We already have a bouquet of such models, which are now being deployed in multiple sectors to increase productivity, to increase efficiency, to increase the effective use of technology”, the Minister explained on India’s vision towards nurturing the AI paradigm.
Speaking about the growing network of AI investment in India, the Minister added that India is attracting considerable investment to harness its AI ecosystem. Huge investments are channelled into developing AI infrastructure, data centres, compute capacity, semiconductors, power apparatus, etc. As of now, the total investments in these areas amount to USD 150 billion. With these solid assertions, Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s bold, firm and solid assertion on the world stage about India’s rapidly emerging AI ecosystem was a testament to India’s vision, actions and incredible growth in the Artificial Intelligence apparatus.
The Minister not only debunked the myth and false assessment of the IMF but also hailed the vast vision and capabilities of India, where the in-house or indigenous AI chain doesn’t just aid the Indian economy but will also add paramount value to the global AI chain. The Minister’s assertion on a global stage comes at a crucial time, as India is set to host the Global AI Summit alongside France in February 2026. The outlines given by Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will further consolidate India’s AI path and plan for global benefit to foresee a sound, credible, transparent and resilient AI ecosystem.
