India will be the biggest winner of AI race, says NSE chief Ashish Chauhan

Ashish Chauhan, MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), has shared a detailed reflection on the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence (AI), calling it a transformative force that will redefine human life in the coming years. In a post on X, he began his note by saying, “AI story till now. It is still unfolding.”

Chauhan described AI as a powerful technology that will “change life transformationally in the next few years and decades” and bring “substantial productivity gains in most areas like electricity, telecom, or IT did.” He compared the potential of AI to earlier waves of technological revolutions that reshaped the global economy.

However, he was also critical of how large American corporations and the US government have shaped the AI narrative. According to him, “Large US companies and Government of US tried to project it as a matter of large investments rather than use of brains. Extremely costly hardware, trillion dollar models etc were to some extent part of the hype, awe and shock model US adopts to control most new technologies to keep small countries and small companies out.”

Reflecting on the global politics of technology, Chauhan pointed out that ever since ChatGPT’s launch, there has been a sustained attempt to frame AI as a race between superpowers. “In last 3 years since ChatGPT started, it was a constant reminder every day that countries like China are enemies because they also have AI capabilities they built over last twenty years using government planning and coordination,” he wrote.

He also noted how countries like India were portrayed as lagging behind: “It was also projected that countries like India are losers in AI field – because they are neither like US which can spend trillions of USD or are like China where government capabilities of to direct investments and efforts are immense.”

But the NSE chief argued that the global AI field is changing faster than expected, and the barriers to entry are breaking down. “AI field has been changing fast and becoming democratised every day. Democratisation of technology brings down costs of new technologies with each passing day. The AI tech waves are coming faster at a pace that no one is able to control or even comprehend let alone own,” he wrote.

In recent weeks, Chauhan observed, the dominance of US-led AI systems has faced a major challenge. “Much more effective hundreds of open weight AI models coming out of China and other countries don’t require large compute also that has been projected by US AI groups. These Chinese models are being proved to be equal or better in their effectiveness for purpose.” He added that the “hype, shock and awe part of the US AI story has been punctured substantially in last few weeks,” and that the “repercussions will be felt over next several years.”

Looking ahead, Chauhan expressed optimism about India’s role in the AI era. “User countries like India would be the beneficiaries. For example, over the last 60 years, India didn’t invent computer chips, most computer languages, databases, network equipment, etc. Despite that India has been one of the winners of the IT race in the world over last several decades.”

He added that he was increasingly convinced about India’s potential to lead in this new wave of innovation: “I am becoming more confident that India will be the biggest winner of AI race as the most adaptive country for Information technology in next 20-30 years. Indian policy makers, organisations and individuals will have to work hard, coordinate and make the best out of this extremely fast evolving situation.”

At the end, Chauhan turned his attention to what’s coming next. “Next race is already building up. Robotics between US and China. How do we get prepared and how do we combine Robotics with AI to be the biggest beneficiaries of this new fast moving race needs to be thought through,” he said.