India needs to focus on a merit-based research ecosystem in the next three to five years to emerge in the AI ecosystem, urged Neelkanth Mishra, Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and Executive Director-Designate, World Bank said.Speaking at the launch of the AI Council of India (AICI), a national platform, and a council of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on Wednesday he said, “The moment you have high quality research happening at, say IIT or IISc or some of these technology institutes, it will build confidence of venture capitalists to invest in Indian startups.’’The Council (AICI) is expected to create synergy across India’s rapidly evolving Artificial Intelligence ecosystem and bring together policymakers, technology companies, AI startups, academia, investors, and other key stakeholders on a common platform to foster collaboration, accelerate AI adoption, and strengthen India’s leadership in artificial intelligence.Also speaking on the occasion, Ashish Shelar, Minister of Information Technology and Cultural Affairs, Government of Maharashtra said, “India is doing extraordinary work in artificial intelligence, and our startups are building world-class products. Our technology companies are deploying AI at a scale that few countries can match.”According to an IAMAI communique, India’s AI ecosystem is home to exceptional talent, vibrant startups, strong digital public infrastructure, and growing enterprise adoption. Yet, despite this promise, the ecosystem currently operates largely in silos. Pioneering work is underway in industry, academia, government, and the startup community — but in the absence of structured coordination, these efforts remain fragmented, limiting their collective impact.The AICI has been created precisely to address this gap by fostering synergy among stakeholders and the council would also unlock outcomes that no single constituent can achieve in isolation, it said. The Council’s work will be anchored across three strategic focus areas: advancing AI Models, Research & Frontier AI, including foundation models, sovereign AI development and localised benchmarks for India’s 500 million-plus non-English users.The council is also expected to strengthen AI Infrastructure and compute by expanding access to GPU clusters and reducing compute costs to make AI development viable for startups and MSMEs alike. Published - July 02, 2026 07:50 pm IST