India Builds Indigenous Foundation Model Ecosystem

India's government released a white paper on Mar 16, 2026, outlining a strategy to develop indigenous foundation models and supporting infrastructure. Prepared by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, the paper calls for shared compute access, India-centric data and model repositories, and multiple model-building efforts across text, speech, multimodal, and sectoral systems. It frames foundation models as a sovereign capability to reduce dependence on external providers and enable inclusive AI adoption.