Can India catch up with us, Taiwan in the global AI race? Economist Gautam Chikermane responds

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]A lot of reportage reporting is done that because India has probably not done very well in the AI.

[00:00:07]And people have no much confidence on Indian AI story. That's why a lot of investments are going to the AI companies, big AI companies in US, Taiwan, etc. So, is it also a factor?

[00:00:21]It could be one small factor. Every Every few years, there is one fashion statement that global capital chases.

[00:00:31]Uh Sometimes it's auto automobiles.

[00:00:35]Sometimes it is green technologies.

[00:00:38]Sometimes it is uh green cars.

[00:00:42]And so, these are fashion statements.

[00:00:44]They come, they go, they move. Today, it is AI.

[00:00:48]Uh AI may be a very long-term play, and it may require trillions of dollars, as we can already see. But, it is not the only investment. Are you saying that uh investment will only go to AI and not to, let's say, shirts, uh cars, or uh toothpaste, and stuff like that. It's not possible.

[00:01:12]These investments will carry on. In fact, according to a study, the the amount of manufacturing in the past 15 years, in the next 15 years, there will be three times more manufacturing required than in the past 15 years. So, what is this going to be? It's going to be the stuff that we use. Uh so, uh so, yeah, AI is a big big It could be a big reason. But, if that is the case, the money should be moving from every country in the world towards America, China, South Korea, and Taiwan. But, that's not the case.

[00:01:47]India, according to some competitor I think it's a Stanford report, India is number three globally in terms of AI AI standing. So, we are building our stacks. By the way, no country has the complete AI stack.

[00:02:01]So, there is energy, there is semiconductors, there's chips, there is models, etc. So, there are some countries which are good in one, another which is like Taiwan has is good in something, America is good in another.

[00:02:13]Uh China has the rare earths and the processed rare earths that go into the making, and India is now building its own AI.

[00:02:20]>> AI is can be one factor, right?

[00:02:21]>> AI can be one factor, but I would say to say that India is not in the in in the AI reckoning is incorrect. Uh that is a misreading. AI is very much India is very much there.

[00:02:32]>> Why suddenly we have lost our attraction, you know? It It used It was doing very well. Our markets were doing so well.

[00:02:38]There must be some reason why the FIIs are going from here. So, many people say that it's it's a mix of let us say capital gains. Capital gains, yes. Okay, that India has capital gains. But capital gains are there in every country. Show me one country which does not tax