India@2047: We want to partner with India on AI, says Microsoft’s Srinivasan

Microsoft Corp. Inc. wants to partner with the Indian government and other stakeholders as co-pilots to accelerate AI adoption, said Sundar Srinivasan, vice-president of AI & search, Microsoft India Development Centre, during a panel discussion at the Mint India@2047 Summit on Friday.   

“India has a unique asset in terms of, I think, the cultural and the linguistic diversity, for example, is another aspect where AI can actually democratize and kind of bridge these gaps in language barriers and stuff like that, and be one of the places where we can experiment and bring, you know, some of the solutions that the world can look forward to as well,” said Srinivasan during the discussion on “AI, semiconductors and the high-tech challenge”.

Ankush Wadhera, managing director and partner for technology at BCG India, touched upon the importance of intellectual property and the need to build core technologies. 

He said there were three primary talking points in the realm of semiconductors and technology, including India’s dependence on the world for chips, a new world order where global supply chains were getting re-aligned, and the bigger opportunity for the electronics manufacturing sector.

“More than 99% (of chips) of what we needed was imported. More than 40% was imported from China, right, so that’s the environment in which we are operating, and that needs to change,” he said. 

He added that nations were trying to localize supply chains, and that is leading to overcapacity. “So, I think, what really energizes me, to be honest, in terms of this context, when you talk about strategy and what the government is doing in terms of policy, the India semiconductor mission, I personally feel very, very excited about. This is the first time when behind the policy, we are actually putting the money where the mouth is,” said Wadhera.

The Indian semiconductor mission was launched in December 2022 to financially support companies investing in semiconductors and display manufacturing.

On parallels between infrastructure law and technology today, Amit Kapur, joint managing partner at JSA Advocates & Solicitors, said there was scope for improvement. “So, I think we have a huge opportunity. We are doing a lot of things right, but I think we need to do more. I am still not convinced that we have the ecosystem fully there.” 

Every regulatory policy framework alters the scenario, and there can be setbacks to innovations. Yet, “privacy, national security, terrorism are all significant concerns. So, the engagement has to be far deeper, far more intense. You can’t ignore one or the other,” said Kapur.

On global investors viewing India from a regulatory landscape with respect to semiconductors, BCG India’s Wadhera said that most stakeholders were now considering an India strategy in their boardrooms. “One year down the line, today, most of the global leading organizations that were not looking at India, their boardrooms are talking about what is my India strategy whether it be the leading chipmaker in the US or the leading chipmaker in Japan. They are all asking internally, and then consultants like us, what should be our India strategy? So, that’s how they are sitting up and taking note of what has started happening in India.” 

While Wadhera set the ball rolling on global investors, Anamika Bhargava, head of marketing strategy and policy at L&T Semiconductor Technologies Ltd, spoke about the government-to-government dialogue, adding that plenty of clearances were required on a diplomatic level before actual technology is flown into the country.

“And more importantly, I think what they are viewing it is it? Do we deserve to have the technology? Can we really manage it? Well, do we have the talent today? No, we don’t have the talent. We don’t even have people who have actually worked on it, really, when I say worked on a real I would say a fab. We don’t have them today. So, I think there’s a lot of to and fro,” said Bhargava, reiterating Wadhera’s point that investors are exploring and looking at an India strategy.