On the sidelines of IBM's Think 2025 event in Mumbai, Sandip Patel, MD of IBM India, discussed India’s evolving technology policy. He also shared insights on IBM’s role in shaping AI, quantum and semiconductor initiatives in the country, and the company’s collaboration with government-backed projects like BharatGen. Excerpts:
IBM has been very active in India’s national tech forums in the last few years. How do you view India’s approach to policy consultations, and what has IBM’s role been in that process?
I want to start by acknowledging the government. In recent years, it has been very encouraging to see the government actively involve industry in consultations, starting with the DPDP Act. This inclusive approach is positive for India, industry and government collaboration.
“Since taking on this role, once Covid cycles eased, I have been proactive in offering whatever we can based on IBM’s technology leadership. We cannot help shape every policy area, but in domains where we have deep expertise such as quantum, semiconductors, AI governance and advocacy, we began contributing almost four to five years ago.”
The government has also recognised the value of IBM’s participation. When the India Semiconductor Mission was being conceptualised, before its launch, we met IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and then-Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar along with our Chairman Arvind Krishna. They sought our views on how to think about semiconductors. Arvind not only shared perspectives but committed to deeper support and we seconded a senior semiconductor research fellow to the government’s mission committee. He was instrumental in helping shape the ecosystem, define chip strategy and execution priorities.
Can you share some recent examples of IBM’s involvement in AI, data and quantum policy engagement in India?
During the formulation of the National Quantum Mission, Ashwiniji asked for our inputs. With our former head of research Dario Gil visiting India at the time, we shared perspectives on the evolution of quantum and submitted two white papers. One general framework on quantum and another confidential paper outlining how India could build leadership in the field.
We continue policy advocacy through industry bodies like Nasscom. During the DPDP consultations, we were among the first to provide recommendations on data protection and privacy. Nasscom’s final submission drew significantly from our inputs, along with those of others. Where we have strengths, we offer policy advice proactively. Increasingly, the government seeks our views in areas like semiconductors, quantum and data governance. During a recent visit, our Chief Privacy Officer met senior officials from Niti Aayog and the IT secretaries to share inputs, which we later documented as white papers. We don’t push policy, but wherever our global experience and technology expertise are relevant, we engage constructively and responsibly.
Can you tell us about your partnership with government-backed BharatGen consortium? How are they using your technology to build their AI models?
As a side note, I must share that much of watsonx development, including our Granite family of small language models has been built in India. BharatGen has been very interested in our watsonx platform.
Our initial work with BharatGen was to make this toolkit available to them, both the open-source and proprietary components. As they now scale and build applications for India, whether for government use cases or commercial deployments, they are using the watsonx platform to accelerate development and go to market faster. With AI governance built into watsonx and watsonx.governance, they can also ensure compliance as AI regulations evolve.
How else are you contributing to India’s AI momentum?
Beyond language models, we are also working on geospatial AI. For example, we have built two open-source geospatial foundation models, Prithvi 1 and Prithvi 2, with NASA using satellite and weather data. Even Prime Minister Modiji was fascinated by this when we showcased at an event. We are now creating Indian versions using datasets from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) and other local sources. Over time, these geospatial models could complement BharatGen’s work, especially for national-scale use cases. While we are not there yet, we see strong potential to collaborate on AI solutions for citizen services and societal challenges as the models mature.
India has spoken about sovereign technology a lot in recent years. But given IBM’s expertise and products in quantum space, have you faced any resistance while thinking of bringing your quantum computers into India due to US export controls and internal policies?
There is no resistance to bringing quantum technology to India. In fact, there was a tug of war among states over who would host the first quantum system. Whenever you bring a leading-edge technology from one part of the world to another, export control regulations come into play, and we are working through those. Both the US and Indian governments are aligned on enabling technological advancement responsibly.
The core concern from export regulators is preventing sensitive technology from being resold or transferred to unintended countries and ensuring protection of intellectual property (IP). To give a simple example: the US State Department had shared a list of five to seven compliance requirements for deploying the system in India. We discussed it with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyalji and his response was, “No problem, we’ll get it done.” Within two weeks, everything was resolved with full support from the IT Ministry and other government agencies. They simply asked us to tell them what was needed to move forward.
So it’s far from resistance, we are seeing strong enthusiasm globally and not just in India but also in countries like Spain, South Korea and Japan, where we recently announced quantum partnerships. |
