New Delhi, April 16 (IANS). Ravi Shankar Prajapati, joint director of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, said on Thursday that India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) roadmap should be based on the principles of affordability and accessibility.
He was delivering the keynote address at a policy roundtable titled “Roadmap for AI and Sustainability in India” organized by ‘Chintan Research Foundation’ in collaboration with ‘The Dialogue’ here.
Prajapati emphasized that India’s AI ambitions are entering a decisive phase, and the country is in a unique position due to its vast data production capabilities.
However, he underlined that the future of AI in India will be determined not just by the algorithms or applications, but also by the infrastructure that powers large-scale computations, including how it is designed, where it is located and how it is maintained.
The discussion brought together policymakers, experts and industry stakeholders to discuss how to link AI development with sustainability goals. In his opening address, Dr. Debjit Palit, Center Head, ‘Centre for Climate Change and Energy Transition’ at CRF, highlighted the need to strike a balance between energy and AI.
“India must create a ‘virtuous cycle’ where AI supports energy efficiency and in turn, energy systems support the expansion of AI in a sustainable manner,” he said.
Taking the discussion forward, Sripriya Gopalakrishnan, DGM, Policy at ‘IndiaAI’ under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, emphasized that AI infrastructure should be seen as an interconnected ecosystem.
He said this includes hardware, software, data, energy and institutional framework; It is therefore essential to take a holistic approach that links AI ambitions to real-world resource limitations.
Roundtable participants agreed that data centers and AI-ready computing capacity should be treated as ‘strategic infrastructure’ rather than simply ‘peripheral digital assets’.
He highlighted that such infrastructure has far-reaching implications for energy systems, regional development, digital sovereignty and long-term economic growth.
At the same time, experts also pointed to several structural challenges that could impact India’s AI journey. These include the concentration of data centers in a few metros, limited grid capacity, water scarcity, climate risks and increasing energy demand. Overcoming these barriers will be critical to sustainably expanding AI across the country.
–IANS
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