Beyond Jugaad: What India Needs for its Own DeepSeek Moment | Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan, IIT Bombay

In the consumer internet era, startups could scale quickly without heavy R&D. But how is the age of AI fundamentally different? And can India truly build its own Sovereign AI stack?In this episode of AI Futures, host Anirudh Suri speaks with Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Professor at IIT Bombay and Principal Investigator of BharatGen to unpack why research and academia are now the backbone of innovation in AI, and how India can build its own AI stack.We address:- What lessons can we learn from China’s AI rise and the “DeepSeek moment”?- How is India building sovereign AI models through initiatives like BharatGen?- Can resource constraints actually drive better AI systems—and if so, how?- What are India’s core strengths in AI today—adoption, scale, and ecosystem?- Why is a “whole-of-nation” approach critical for AI development?- How could AI innovation in the Global South evolve differently from the rest of the world?From China’s decade-long investments to India’s unique, resource-constrained approach, this conversation explores what it really takes to build meaningful AI startups today.🔔 Subscribe and listen to the full conversation now.----The AI Futures Podcast series, hosted by Anirudh Suri, is organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India as the intellectual prelude to the India AI Impact Summit 2026 held from Feb 16 - 20, 2026 in New Delhi, India.Follow the India AI Impact Summit 2026: https://impact.indiaai.gov.in/About BharatGen: https://bharatgen.com/About the Guest: Ganesh Ramakrishnan is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and a leading voice in India’s AI research ecosystem. He serves as the Principal Investigator of BharatGen, a government-backed initiative bringing together top Indian institutions to build large-scale, multilingual generative AI models for India. He has been recognized by Forbes India and Accel among the top Indian minds in AI globally. About Anirudh Suri, Host of the Podcast:Anirudh Suri is a non-resident scholar with Carnegie India, where his research and writing focus on technology, artificial intelligence and geopolitics. He is the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, and host of The Great Tech Game Podcast. He is also the Managing Partner at India Internet Fund, a US and India based technology-focused venture capital fund. The Great Tech Game by Anirudh Suri - https://amzn.eu/d/1Su38My Follow Anirudh here:X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/anirudhsuriLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anirudhsuri/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anirudh_suriFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnirudhSuri.inWebsite: (http://www.anirudhsuri.com/) Book and Podcast: (http://www.greattechgame.com/)#IndiaAI #IndiaAIImpactSummit2026 #AIFuturesPodcast #AISummit #AnirudhSuri #AIStack #SovereignAI #AI #IndiaAI #BharatGen #DigitalIndia #IITBombay #IndianStartups #MakeInIndia #AIIndia #TechIndia #researchanddevelopment #AIStartups #StartupEcosystem #Innovation #TechEntrepreneur #DeepTechStartups #GlobalSouth #AIInnovation #TechPolicy #AILeadership #Geopolitics #TheGreatTechGame #TGTGPodcast #Podcast