“As the 2026-27 Union Budget announcement approaches, it’s time for India to move beyond just fueling the AI engine and start building the entire stack. If last year’s budget was the ‘adrenaline shot’ that sparked the AI ecosystem, the upcoming one needs to be the structural steel that turns India’s AI-First ambition into a permanent global reality.
For AI startups, the biggest bottleneck is not just capital inflows, it’s compute. The expectation is an aggressive expansion of the IndiaAI Mission, focusing on democratizing access to high-performance GPUs. Subsidizing compute for startups isn’t a luxury but a necessity if India aims to build sovereign AI models. Incentives for AI adoption are necessary. Tax breaks or AI-adoption grants for businesses that deploy sovereign AI would be a total game-changer. It would move AI from a high-experiment reality to a productivity multiplier for every business in the country.
Lastly, regulatory certainty is much needed. A dedicated ‘AI Innovation Sandbox’ would allow AI startups in India to ship fast and solve real-world problems. We have the talent and the data. Now we need a budget that gives us the infrastructure and the freedom to build AI that is quintessentially sovereign, yet undeniably world-class.”
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