Abhishek Singh, MeitY additional secretary and CEO of IndiaAI Mission, has warned that India’s tech and IT services industry could face serious trouble if engineering talent is not upgraded fast for the age of artificial intelligence.
Speaking at the Bengaluru Tech Summit on November 19, Singh said the rise of AI coding tools poses a direct threat to the country’s long-held advantage in software services.
“The ability to use brain power of Indians to solve world problems that has led to the boom in the IT industry… is facing a challenge from… AI code generators and the AI tools that OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are making. If we don’t turbocharge our engineers with those AI skills, we run a huge risk and we’ll have a lot to lose,” he said.
He pointed out that India built its reputation as the tech garage of the world, yet the skills needed today are shifting fast. AI, data science, and advanced computing have become essential for the next leap in global technology. A slow response from companies could leave them exposed.
The IndiaAI Mission has started fellowships for students working on AI across fields like engineering, medicine, law, and liberal arts. Singh said data labs are coming up in partnership with states and industry to train data annotators, data analysts, and data scientists in tier 2 cities.
MeitY under the IndiaAI Mission, has also launched ‘YUVA AI for ALL’, a first-of-its-kind free course that introduces the world of AI to all Indians, especially the youth.
The mission is also creating tools focused on AI safety. These include systems for bias testing, ethical certification, deepfake detection, and stress testing, which will sit inside the AIKosh platform.
Singh said India’s long term tech strength depends on how fast companies lift the capability of their engineering teams. If the upskilling does not happen at speed, the country could lose ground despite new investments in compute infrastructure and model development.
India’s own push to build large language models is also moving ahead. Singh said Bengaluru based Sarvam is closing in on the launch of its foundation model. Sarvam is one of twelve foundation model projects supported under the IndiaAI Mission, where the government pays for all compute needed.
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