Artificial intelligence has moved beyond being merely an enabler of economic growth to becoming a defining pillar of geopolitical influence, Debjani Ghosh told The New Indian Express, describing AI as “an axis of power” in today’s world.
Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog, Chief Architect of the NITI Frontier Tech Hub, and former president of NASSCOM, said the character of artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed in the global order.
“Earlier, we used to say technology was an enabler of power. Today, AI is an axis of power,” she said, underlining how deeply AI is intertwined with national strategy and geopolitics. As a powerful general-purpose technology, AI can no longer be separated from questions of sovereignty, resilience and national security, she added.
Responding to concerns that the push for sovereign AI and sovereign cloud could hinder innovation, Ghosh disagreed. Sovereign AI, she noted, is not a new concept but part of a broader global shift as countries seek to insulate themselves from geopolitical disruptions. “You have to ensure that no one can cut off supply because of geopolitical tensions,” she said, drawing parallels with food, health, water and national security.
According to her, building technology sovereignty is fundamentally about strengthening resilience across critical supply chains. However, she stressed that sovereignty should not be equated with isolation. While building domestic capabilities is essential, it must go hand in hand with international collaboration and trusted partnerships.
“It’s not just about building everything indigenously. It’s also about alliances and trusted supply chains,” she said, adding that collaboration will remain central to the AI ecosystem. India, she pointed out, is actively engaging with multiple countries, including through global working groups focused on democratising access to critical resources such as compute and talent so that more nations can build AI capabilities.
On data localisation, Ghosh said the issue should not be conflated with sovereignty. “It’s not about where data is stored. It’s about who controls the data, workflows and supply chains,” she said, emphasising governance and ownership rather than geography.
As AI reshapes global economics and politics, Ghosh’s remarks frame the debate not as a trade-off between sovereignty and collaboration, but as a strategic balancing act in an era where artificial intelligence has emerged as a new axis of power.