New Delhi: India has emerged as a “shining beacon” among Global South nations on AI, but the real challenge now is moving beyond pilots to large-scale, trusted deployment, according to the ‘Playbook for National AI Strategy and Implementation’ released by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Based on work across India, Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines, the report argues there is no single lever to accelerate AI adoption. Countries instead need a tightly coordinated ecosystem spanning computing, funding, skills, governance and institutional accountability. Saibal Chakraborty, who leads BCG India’s tech and digital advantage practice, said India already has a structural edge.
“India has solved a large part of the hard infrastructure and digital public infrastructure problem. Aadhaar, UPI and data centres make it much easier to build AI applications at scale,” he said. The playbook cites the IndiaAI Mission’s facilitation of over 38,000 GPUs, made available at under Rs 60 per hour after centralised govt negotiations with vendors. However, the report flags a financing gap. While India has more than 120 unicorns, private capital largely avoids “socially sensitive sectors like climate, education and rural solutions”. To address this, the playbook backs govt-led fund-of-funds models for public interest AI use cases. On skills, Chakraborty said scaling artificial intelligence requires senior leadership trust and oversight. Without CEO-level confidence, AI risks remaining stuck in “cool pilots” despite strong national ambition
