Is India About to Become the Global Epicentre of AI?

India’s technology story has hit a decisive new chapter. What was once a lucrative market for cheap smartphones and mobile data is now becoming the frontline of the global race for artificial intelligence. The clearest sign came this week, when OpenAI registered its Indian arm and confirmed plans to open a New Delhi office before year-end.

For the company best known for ChatGPT, India is not just a new address on the map. It is the testbed where the economics of AI will be rewritten.

The Price of Scale

India has already become ChatGPT’s second-largest market worldwide, with student users driving explosive growth. To capture that audience, OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT Go—a ₹399-a-month plan with UPI integration. The pricing is radical: cheaper than a Netflix subscription and dramatically lower than OpenAI’s global rates.

The logic is simple. India is too vast to ignore, but too price-sensitive to crack with Western pricing. By setting costs at mass-market levels, OpenAI is chasing its own “Jio moment”—a strategy that could either democratise AI or commodify it beyond recognition.

More Than a Market

But there’s more at stake than subscriptions. OpenAI is also launching an education summit, a developer day, and a literacy initiative with the IT ministry. This signals a longer game: shaping the ecosystem in which the next generation of coders, engineers, and entrepreneurs will grow up using ChatGPT as their default tool.

As Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw put it, the move “reflects India’s growing leadership in digital innovation.” Yet behind the warm words lies a deeper shift—global AI players want to anchor themselves in India not only for users, but for influence.

The Crowded Battlefield

OpenAI isn’t the only giant circling. Google has priced its Gemini Premium plan at ₹1,950, bundling it across Gmail, Docs, Meet, and Android. Elon Musk’s xAI offers SuperGrok at ₹700. Perplexity AI, led by an Indian founder, has tied up with Airtel to give away its Pro plan to millions of telecom users.

The result is a price war unprecedented in the history of software. Grammarly is down to ₹250, Google is giving away Gemini Pro to students, and OpenAI’s ₹399 tier is far cheaper than its global equivalent. Analysts warn that the race is no longer about selling products—it’s about amassing users and, crucially, their data.

Indian Startups at a Crossroads

Where does this leave Indian AI firms? Unicorns like Krutrim and challengers such as Sarvam AI and BharatGPT have been trying to build India-first large language models. Others—Qure.ai in healthcare, Mad Street Den in retail, Yellow.ai in customer service—have carved out niches.

But foundational models require capital and compute on a scale Indian startups cannot easily match. With global giants offering cut-price access, many will be forced into collaborations or acquisitions. The danger is that India’s AI future may end up built in India, but not by India.

Geopolitics and Dependence

The geopolitics of AI adds another layer. With China tightening control over AI and the US treating it as strategic infrastructure, India has suddenly become the “swing state” of global AI. For Washington, an Indian AI hub is a counterbalance to Beijing. For New Delhi, however, heavy reliance on American companies may come at the cost of true technological sovereignty.

The Fork in the Road

India’s demographic dividend—its students, coders, and entrepreneurs—makes it irresistible to companies like OpenAI. But whether this moment produces genuine innovation or entrenches dependency will depend on how India navigates policy, pricing, and partnerships.

For now, ordinary users are the winners. More tools, cheaper plans, and faster rollouts are reshaping the digital landscape at lightning speed. But behind the affordability lies a bigger question: is India shaping AI, or simply being shaped by it?

As Sam Altman put it, the aim is to build AI “for India, and with India.” Whether that “with” translates into genuine collaboration—or just another subscription economy—remains to be seen.

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