India Pushes for Indigenous AI in Defence Sector

Syllabus: GS3/ Science and Technology/ Defence 

Context

• Amid evolving warfare trends seen in the Iran and Ukraine conflicts, India’s defence establishment is accelerating efforts to develop indigenous artificial intelligence (AI) systems for military applications. 

Why is AI Becoming Important in Modern Warfare?

• Transformation of Warfare: AI is transforming warfare from manpower-intensive operations to data-driven and autonomous systems.
  • AI-powered drones and autonomous systems improve surveillance, reconnaissance, and precision strikes.
  • It improves cyber warfare capabilities through automated threat detection and response systems.
• Global Conflicts: AI-supported technologies significantly improve reconnaissance and tactical planning capabilities.
  • In the Russia–Ukraine Conflict the extensive use of drones, satellite intelligence, and AI-assisted battlefield analytics demonstrated the growing importance of intelligent warfare systems.
  • In the Iran and West Asia Conflict, AI-assisted systems were reportedly used for military targeting and operational planning.
• China’s Intelligentised Warfare: China is rapidly integrating AI into military operations through autonomous drone swarms, robotic combat platforms, and intelligent command-and-control systems, increasing India’s urgency to develop indigenous defence AI systems.

Why Does India Want Indigenous AI Systems?

• Strategic Autonomy: The dependence on foreign AI systems in strategic sectors such as defence may create vulnerabilities during geopolitical tensions and Indigenous systems ensure sovereign control over critical military infrastructure.
• Importance of Data Security: Military AI systems process highly sensitive and classified information.
  • Dependence on foreign AI platforms may create risks of data leakage or external surveillance.
• Reduction in costs: Defence AI development can strengthen India’s startup and deep-tech ecosystem. It can help lower the long-term import bill associated with strategic technologies. 

Role of Indian AI Startups

• SarvamAI: The company is developing indigenous foundational AI models for Indian use cases.
  • It focuses on multilingual and domain-specific AI systems.
• BharatGen: BharatGen is working on indigenous generative AI technologies.
  • These systems may support military intelligence and strategic communication applications.

Government Initiatives Supporting AI Development

• IndiaAI Mission: The IndiaAI Mission, approved in March 2024 serves as the overarching national framework to boost AI infrastructure, research, and startup ecosystems, including those directly serving the defence sector.
• iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence): Under the Defence India Startup Challenge, iDEX engages startups and MSMEs to develop indigenous AI, autonomous systems, and surveillance technologies.
• The Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), a DRDO lab, serves as the premier R&D wing for AI, focusing on intelligent systems and cyber defense.

What are the Challenges?

• Dependence on Foreign Hardware: AI systems require advanced semiconductor chips and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Most high-end chips are manufactured by foreign companies.
  • India lacks sufficient domestic semiconductor manufacturing capability.
• High Cost of AI Development: Developing foundational AI models requires massive computing infrastructure, extensive data training and annotation, and continuous testing and refinement.
• Limited Compute Infrastructure: Indian firms continue to face challenges related to access to high-performance computing, availability of advanced AI chips and large-scale data centre infrastructure.

Concluding remarks

• The growing use of artificial intelligence in global conflicts has demonstrated that future warfare will increasingly depend on intelligent systems, autonomous technologies, and real-time data processing. 
• India’s push for indigenous AI capabilities in the defence sector reflects the need for strategic autonomy, technological sovereignty, and stronger national security preparedness in an era of intelligent warfare.

Source: IE