India’s AI Decade: Between Sovereign Ambition and Institutional Friction (2026–2031)
India’s AI Decade: Between Sovereign Ambition and Institutional Friction (2026–2031) India’s AI trajectory is no longer a debate about potential. It is a structural contest between sovereign infrastructure build-out and institutional inertia — between pledged capital and executed capacity, between geopolitical ambition and regulatory choreography. The narrative has evolved from “massive contradiction” to a high-stakes race . The decisive question is not whether India is chaotic. It is whether velocity can outpace friction before the global AI window narrows. At stake: a projected $200 billion capital infusion across AI-ready data centers, semiconductor ecosystems, digital public infrastructure, and sovereign compute initiatives — including headline commitments from industrial groups like Adani Group and Tata Group. The outcomes, however, will not resolve cleanly into victory or failure. They will fracture across regions, industries, and labor markets. The Core Tension: Sovere...