Speaking at the Bengaluru Tech Summit, Abhishek Singh MeitY Additional Secretary and CEO of the IndiaAI Mission cautioned that the rapid adoption of AI-powered coding tools could erode India’s long-standing edge in software services. He warned that the country’s tech and IT services sectors may face significant challenges unless engineering talent is quickly upskilled to meet the demands of the AI era.
Speaking at the Bengaluru Tech Summit on November 19, Singh warned that the rapid growth of AI-driven coding tools could undermine India’s long-standing dominance in software services, posing a significant challenge to the industry’s competitive edge.
The ability of Indian talent to solve global problems which has powered the rise of the country’s IT industry is now being challenged by AI code generators and advanced tools from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google,” he said. “If we don’t rapidly equip our engineers with modern AI skills, we risk losing our competitive advantage and facing significant setbacks.
He noted that while India earned its reputation as the world’s tech garage, the skill requirements are evolving rapidly. AI, data science, and advanced computing are now core to the next wave of global innovation, and any delay from companies in adapting to these shifts could leave them vulnerable.
The IndiaAI Mission has launched fellowships for students pursuing AI across diverse fields including engineering, medicine, law, and the liberal arts. Singh added that new data labs, being set up in collaboration with state governments and industry partners, will focus on training data annotators, analysts, and data scientists in tier-2 cities.
MeitY, under the IndiaAI Mission, has also rolled out ‘YUVA AI for ALL’ a first-of-its-kind free course designed to introduce the fundamentals of artificial intelligence to all Indians, with a special focus on empowering the youth.
The mission is also developing a suite of AI safety tools, including systems for bias testing, ethical certification, deepfake detection, and stress testing. All of these capabilities will be integrated into the AIKosh platform.
Singh emphasized that India’s long-term tech strength hinges on how quickly companies can upgrade the capabilities of their engineering teams. Without rapid upskilling, he warned, the country risks losing ground even with fresh investments in compute infrastructure and model development.
India’s efforts to develop its own large language models are also gaining momentum. Singh noted that Bengaluru-based Sarvam is nearing the launch of its foundation model. Sarvam is among the twelve foundation model projects backed by the IndiaAI Mission, under which the government covers all required compute costs.
