India Committed To Lead AI Space: PM After Meeting Vishal Sikka

Former Infosys CEO and entrepreneur Vishal Sikka met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (January 4) and held “wide-ranging” discussions on artificial intelligence (AI).

In a post on social media platform X, Sikka said that the two discussed the impact of the emerging technology on India. 

“It was a privilege to meet the Hon. Prime Minister Sh. @narendramodi for a detailed and wide-ranging discussion on AI, its impact on India and several imperatives for the time ahead.  I left the meeting both inspired and humbled by his extraordinary grasp of technology’s impact on all of us, and how its use with democratic values can uplift everyone,” said Sikka. 

Responding to Sikka, PM Modi said that India is committed to taking a lead in the AI space and leveraging the potential of the technology for innovation and creating opportunities for the youth. 

“It was an insightful interaction indeed. India is committed to taking the lead in AI, with a focus on innovation and creating opportunities for the youth,” said PM Modi on X. 

An alumnus of Stanford University, Sikka took over as the chief executive and managing director of Infosys in 2015, the first non-founder CEO of the IT giant. 

However, he unceremoniously quit the company in 2018 amid reports of a rift between him and cofounder Narayana Murthy. At the time, Sikka even went on to say that he “cannot continue (as CEO of Infosys) amid baseless, malicious and increasingly personal attacks”.

A year later in 2019, he founded Palo Alto-based “human-centered AI platform and products” startup Vianai Systems, which caters to enterprise AI use cases. 

Sikka is the second high-profile AI founder to meet PM Modi in recent weeks. In late December 2024, PM Modi met AI-powered search engine Perplexity’s cofounder and CEO Aravind Srinivas and discussed the potential for AI adoption in India and across the world. 

The meetings come as the union government has put its weight behind AI and has taken multiple steps to ramp up the adoption of AI in the country. Last year, the union cabinet gave its nod to the INR 10,372 Cr IndiaAI Mission, which plans to foster the homegrown AI ecosystem and facilitate funding for emerging AI startups in the country.

As per Inc42 data, India is home to more than 200 GenAI startups, which raised more than $1.2 Bn in funding between 2020 and 2024. The homegrown GenAI space is expected to become a $17 Bn market opportunity by 2030.