NEW DELHI: India is expecting strong investment inflows of up to $200 billion over the next two years across the five layers of the AI stack, said Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday. The minister, while speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, also said that an additional $17 billion investment is likely in the deep-tech and application layers, apart from infrastructure spending.
“Many venture capital firms are committing funds to deep-tech startups, application development and cutting-edge AI model research. The next generation of models will come from both engineering and mathematical innovation,” said Vaishnaw.
The Minister said the government will soon launch AI Mission 2.0, with a strong focus on research and development, innovation, AI diffusion and strengthening common compute infrastructure. He said that under AI Mission 1.0, India has focused on democratising access to AI infrastructure.
He said India currently has around 30,000 GPUs in the public compute framework and plans to procure an additional 20,000 GPUs. “Orders will be placed shortly, and deployment is expected within six months,” said Vaishnaw.
Responding to concerns about power and water requirements for AI infrastructure, the Minister acknowledged that these are genuine issues. He said India has invested heavily in clean energy and is encouraging research into reducing power and water consumption in AI systems. Some startups, he noted, claim they can reduce power consumption by up to 75% compared to current methods.
The Minister also pitched for the stronger regulations to address deepfakes, calling it a growing problem that threatens children and society. The government has initiated a dialogue with industry, and parliamentary committees have also examined the issue.
He said any company operating in India — including platforms such as Netflix, YouTube, Meta and X — must comply with India’s constitutional and legal framework.
On age-based regulations, he said many countries now recognise the need for differentiated access for young users, and India has already taken forward-looking steps in this regard.
The Minister described the AI divide as similar to other technological divides and said it must be consciously bridged.
“India aims to develop solutions that can serve not only domestic needs but also the Global South, positioning the country as a provider of affordable and scalable AI systems,” said Vaishnaw.