Back

Why aren't Indian AI startups dominating the global scene yet? As someone who's watched the tech world closely, let's break it down - India boasts insane talent pools from IITs and beyond, but we're still playing catch-up. Here's the real talk on what's holding us back. First off, talent drain is brutal. Our top engineers flock to Silicon Valley or Europe for better research ops and pay. Why grind in India when FAANG dangles green cards? This brain exodus leaves local startups short on cutting-edge innovators. It's like having star players but no home team. Adding to that, our research ecosystem is tiny compared to the US or China. Competitive exam toppers chase finance or product gigs, not AI labs. Investors here crave quick cash flows, so they fund safe bets like apps over risky base models. No wonder we have zero major LLMs – all the action's in applied AI, not foundational stuff. Then there's the infrastructure crunch. GPUs are gold dust, and energy costs make training models a wallet-killer. Half the population can't afford AI-native builds because the market's price-sensitive. We're stuck fine tuning foreign tech instead of inventing our own. Don't get me started on the outsourcing hangover. Decades of IT services made us masters of arbitrage – cheap talent for global clients. But that bred a service mindset, not product innovation. Firms like Infosys debug code, not disrupt markets. We're clones of Western models, not leaders. Funding's another sore spot. While OpenAI raises billions, Indian VCs play it safe, backing domestic plays with slow sales cycles. Risk-averse enterprises here demand endless PoCs without paying up. Startups pivot global early, but that skips building a strong home base. Ambition levels? Hot take: We're rate-limited by drive, not just brains or bucks. Valley thrives on high-stakes vibes and early adopters. Here, isolation kills momentum – you need a tribe to sustain big dreams. Many founders bolt for the Bay where prizes are fatter. Data and R&D gaps widen the chasm. India's languages and structural hurdles make foundational models tough. No massive datasets like China's, and R&D spend is a measly 0.64% of GDP. We need heavy lifts in computing and policy to compete. Regulatory vibes aren't helping either. While the gov pushes Digital India, we're lagging on indigenous AI for defense or premium engines. Global competition from US/China beasts us on scale. But hey, silver linings: We're exploding in AI use cases – healthcare, finance, real estate. Building on IT exports legacy, firms like Sarvam and Krutrim are trying LLMs. With 17M GitHub devs, we could export smarts worldwide. To flip this: Pump R&D, retain talent, fund bold visions, build infra. India's got the horsepower – time to unleash it globally. What do you think? Drop thoughts below.💭