India has surged to the third position globally on Stanford University’s 2025 Global AI Vibrancy Index, following the United States and China. This advancement marks a significant leap of four places within just one year, underscoring the country’s growing influence in the artificial intelligence sector.
Karnataka’s Minister for Electronics, IT and BT, Priyank Kharge, announced this development via social media, attributing India’s enhanced ranking to its progress across several key areas, including research and development, talent, responsible AI practices, policy, and infrastructure. Kharge highlighted that India’s rise reflects stronger research output, an increase in patenting, a burgeoning job market in AI, and an expanding digital infrastructure.
According to Kharge, “India is now ranked No. 3 globally on Stanford University’s 2025 Global AI Vibrancy Index, behind only the US and China, after climbing four places in just one year. The ranking is based on parameters including R&D, talent, responsible AI, policy and infrastructure. On talent, India already ranks No. 2 globally, reflecting the scale and depth of our AI workforce and education ecosystem.”
The minister emphasized that Karnataka plays a crucial role in this momentum, positioning itself as “India’s AI lighthouse.” He mentioned the state’s ambitious Startup Policy 2025-30, which allocates ₹518 crore to support 25,000 startups with a focus on AI and deep tech. Additional initiatives include a ₹600 crore DeepTech Decade fund, a new IT Policy for the same period, and institutions like ARTPARK at IISc, alongside the 9-acre BRAINZ (Bengaluru Robotics & AI Innovation Zone) campus. Together, these measures aim to create a robust policy-fund-CoE stack to scale AI from research and development to exports.
The Stanford report emphasizes India’s rapid progress in AI, highlighting key areas such as research and development, talent availability, responsible AI practices, and digital infrastructure. It notes that governments worldwide are significantly increasing their investments in AI infrastructure to bolster domestic ecosystems. Recent commitments include Canada’s USD 2.4 billion AI infrastructure package, France’s EUR 109 billion towards AI, and India’s own pledge of USD 1.25 billion.
In addition, Saudi Arabia has launched Project Transcendence, which represents a USD 100 billion investment initiative aimed at advancing AI technologies. The report also sheds light on talent, where India ranks second globally, reflecting the scale and depth of its AI workforce and educational ecosystem. The concentration of AI talent has seen a marked increase in various countries from 2016 to 2024, with India recording the highest rise at 252 percent, followed closely by Costa Rica at 240 percent and Portugal at 237 percent.
Furthermore, the report references the IndiaAI Mission, launched in March 2024 with an investment of USD 1.25 billion. This initiative aims to fortify India’s AI ecosystem by establishing over 10,000 GPUs through public-private partnerships, developing a national non-personal data platform, and supporting homegrown AI models and deep-tech startups. The focus extends to ethical AI governance and expanding AI labs beyond major cities to democratize access to AI technologies.
These developments collectively underscore India’s emergence as a significant global AI hub, supported by a growing talent pool, policy recalibrations, and targeted public investment. As countries around the world continue to invest heavily in AI, India’s proactive measures signal its commitment to becoming a leader in the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence.
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