AI Will Not Kill India’s IT Industry, It Will Reinvent It: Ashwini Vaishnaw At Davos 2026

Speaking at BT Davos 2026, Union Minister for Railways, Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw addresses growing concerns that artificial intelligence could disrupt India’s traditional strength as the world’s back office. In conversation with Siddharth Zarabi, Group Editor, Business Today, the minister argues that India’s IT industry is already undergoing a fundamental transformation rather than facing decline. Vaishnaw reveals that India’s leading IT companies have systematically pivoted away from the legacy services model towards an AI solutions-led approach, working closely with global enterprises to understand their business needs and deploy customised AI systems. He says the government is actively collaborating with industry to build a one crore (10 million) AI talent pipeline, which he believes will sustain and strengthen India’s technology sector in the years ahead. Outlining a bold three-year vision, the minister says India aims to rely on sovereign AI models, develop indigenous GPU capabilities, and expand its national compute infrastructure beyond the current 38,000 GPUs. Calling this moment the “first day of the first Test match” in a multi-decade transformation, Vaishnaw describes AI as the cornerstone of the fifth industrial revolution, positioning India as a global innovation leader rather than a follower.