How should India approach AI?

In an unstable geopolitical environment, countries are looking to secure access to artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, which are seen as essential to economic growth, scientific research, and national security. Few have placed sovereignty as squarely at the center of their AI strategy as India—and few are as well positioned to achieve it. But to do so, it needs to look beyond infrastructure—chips, data centers, and large language models—and pay more attention to the application layer above them: AI agents, the software and tools that accomplish real-world work. If the effort succeeds, India may pioneer a template for genuine AI sovereignty that other nations can follow.