NEW DELHI — As India prepares to host the India AI Impact Summit this Monday, the nation finds itself at a pivotal crossroads of technological ambition and digital vulnerability. With a projected AI market value of $17 billion by 2027, the government is moving to institutionalize a “security by design” philosophy, positioning trust not as a luxury, but as the primary currency for a data-driven economy.
The AI Frontier and the Trust Deficit
India has rapidly ascended the global AI hierarchy, currently ranked third worldwide by the Stanford University AI Index, trailing only the United States and China. This growth is fueled by a massive talent depth and a strategic state capacity-building mission known as the IndiaAI Mission. With a planned outlay of over ₹10,300 crore, the mission targets everything from compute capacity to the development of indigenous models like Sarvam-1.
However, the rapid expansion of India’s digital footprint has brought a sophisticated wave of automated threats. In 2025, India ranked second globally in phishing attacks—a statistic that highlights the scale of social engineering risks facing its citizens. For policymakers, the challenge of this decade is clear: innovation at a population scale cannot be sustained without a foundation of safety and accountability.
The Sentinel: Sanjay Bahl’s CERT-In
At the center of this defensive architecture is the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), led by Director General Dr. Sanjay Bahl. A veteran with over four decades in the ICT industry, Dr. Bahl has transitioned from high-level roles at Microsoft and TCS to leading India’s national nodal agency for cybersecurity. Under his leadership, CERT-In has shifted from a reactive defense model to one of “anticipatory security.”
Dr. Bahl’s mandate is expansive. CERT-In is responsible for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of information on cyber incidents across all sectors. Last year alone, the agency handled over 29.44 lakh (2.94 million) cyber incidents. Bahl’s strategy emphasizes the “Three Pillars”—people, process, and technology—leveraging AI-driven situational awareness systems to detect and neutralize threats, such as the 2.2 billion malicious domains identified in 2024.
AI as Both Shield and Sword
The government’s strategy recognizes a complex paradox: AI is simultaneously the greatest threat to cybersecurity and its most potent solution. Machine learning and advanced analytics now enable analysts to process terabytes of threat data at “machine speed,” allowing for the real-time detection of anomalous activity that would be invisible to human eyes.
To counter the rise of deepfakes and adversarial manipulation, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has tightened IT rules to mandate platform accountability and ensure timely takedowns of synthetic content. The objective is “sovereign AI”—a resilient ecosystem where AI-driven threat intelligence is integrated across ministries, state governments, and critical infrastructure to prevent systemic disruptions before they materialize.
Building a Data-Driven Human Capital
Beyond the hardware and algorithms, India is investing heavily in “skilling for all.” Initiatives like YUVA, spearheaded by MeitY, aim to equip young citizens with foundational AI skills, ensuring that the benefits of the digital economy are regionally distributed and inclusive. This human-centric approach is backed by the Union Budget 2025-26, which allocated ₹500 crore specifically for AI Centres of Excellence in priority sectors like healthcare and agriculture.
As world leaders and tech giants descend on New Delhi for the summit, the message from Bharat Mandapam is likely to be one of “trust-centric” innovation. By anchoring its AI strategy in national interest and rigorous security protocols, India is attempting to prove that a digital republic can be both a global engine for growth and a fortress of data integrity.
