Why is the world watching India's tech moves? Ajay Sood reveals bold plans | Watch EXCLUSIVE interview

India stands at a pivotal moment in its semiconductor journey, leveraging its robust talent pool for chip design while aiming to overcome the challenges of fabrication. Despite its prowess in design, India has yet to match global standards in semiconductor manufacturing — a gap that policymakers and industry leaders are keen to bridge. At the Carnegie Global Technology Summit 2025, Ajay K. Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, while talking exclusively to Asianet News' Heena Sharma, explained India's evolving semiconductor strategy and broader technological ambitions. 

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When asked about collaborations with Europe under the Trade and Tech Corporation (TTC) framework, Sood remarked, "Right now, the present three working groups have different objectives and deliverables. Specific question whether we have the equipment building for semiconductor building fab... it's not explicitly there but it is not ruled out. Because what we need to see is where the two strengths are complementary to each other and that's where we should build rather than we take any random thing where we don't have the strength. We need to do that and in time to come it can be considered." 

Scaling India's DPI Globally

India's success in Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), such as UPI, has garnered international attention. But India is poised to further redefine its role in global technology leadership.

Right after a panel discussion on Tech Bridges: India-EU Tech Cooperation, Asianet News asked Sood about further scalability of DPI. On this, Sood reaffirmed India's readiness to collaborate globally. 

He said, "DPI has been a very successful example of India's technical prowess... The idea is to enable e-signatures with the European Union so that cross-border trade becomes much easier." He highlighted existing implementations like UPI in Singapore and even France's Eiffel Tower as examples of India's growing influence in digital innovation.

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Cybersecurity and AI Safety

With advancements come challenges, especially in cybersecurity and AI safety. Sood reassured that India's digital frameworks are robust against cyber threats. "All is built into the system, when you have a digital framework, it is not just a transaction in a very naive way, enormous amount of cyber security issues have been taken care and every second, there are attacks on it but the point is it has to be very rugged and it is rugged and this is the strength of the system," he added. 

When asked about any plans to have an AI safety institution in India, he pointed out, "Safety institute is one aspect which one is talking, it could even be virtual institute, it need not be a physical institute with brick and mortar put in place. So safety institute is the concept where you have concentrated efforts on the safety aspect." 

"We have already taken steps because if you look at the report which we have brought out very recently on the AI regulatory framework for India, actually it takes into account that. Many aspects. Transparency, Techno Legal framework, how we have the data handling all that is happening and that is what you would do in an AI safety institute."