India should aim to be number one in new energy and AI, says Bhavish Aggarwal

India must lead the world in new energy and artificial intelligence (AI), said Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder of Ola Electric, while discussing the shared Indian dream of becoming a developed nation by 2047.

During a fireside chat with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory, at TechSparks 2024, Aggarwal emphasised that India is brimming with potential and energy, seeing growth across sectors such as AI, space, biosciences, and new energy technology.

“We have to become world number one in two things. In new energy and in AI.”

Addressing the development of AI in India, Aggarwal pointed out the lack of homegrown digital products, saying, “We use other people’s search engines, other people’s social media, and other people’s chips. We use other people’s AI.” He stressed the importance of creating Indian products to establish the country’s leadership in the digital ecosystem.

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He emphasised that India needs to take control of its AI future for the country’s long-term progress. While India holds considerable strength in the digital world, Aggarwal noted that these capabilities aren’t being harnessed effectively.

“India is the biggest producer of digital data. 20% of the world’s digital data is produced in India. But it’s not stored in India,” he said.

In July, Aggarwal had said in a blog post that artificial intelligence and new energy technologies can propel India towards a $50 trillion economy by 2047. 

In August, Ola’s Krutrim announced its plans to design and develop the country’s first AI silicon chips by 2026. These chips will be tailored to manage complex AI tasks and workloads, with the initial lineup including Bodhi 1 and 2 for AI, Sarv for general computing, and Ojas for edge computing.

The company aims to release Bodhi 2 by 2028, which will be capable of handling over 10 trillion parameters and scalable to exascale supercomputing.