In 2005, after experiencing India’s IT services hub in Bengaluru first-hand, American commentator Thomas Friedman famously declared in his book The World Is Flat that technology had effectively flattened the world. Former bureaucrat and technologist Ajay Kumar, in his new book AI Nation, challenges this in one of the early chapters, ‘The World Is Not Flat—And AI Is Making It Steeper’. Kumar’s realist worldview is clear when he argues that the divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ is widening because of technology, and that a small group of countries and companies is commanding the choke points in this race for techno-supremacy and, in turn, geopolitical dominance.
AI Nation is a carefully thought-out guidebook for policymakers as well as a set of reflections by a techno-realist about how India can maximise the opportunities arising from the churn in the tech sphere.
The book makes crucial observations on how this is to be done. “You cannot break entrenched monopolies by competing on yesterday’s terms. By the time a nation catches up in one technology, the frontier has moved ahead, and the incumbents have consolidated their next advantage,” Kumar observes. He suggests that innovation is no longer a mere strategy; it is the sole lever with disruptive power strong enough to crack “walls of digital concentration”.
Kumar emphasises the critical role of computational power in building India’s AI capabilities. He observes that the country’s compute capacity remains modest compared with that of the US and China, and argues that India should not blindly copy either model. Instead, he proposes a smarter, resource-efficient, fast-follower approach while building what he calls the “Bharat Compute Strategy”. The blueprint for this strategy includes suggestions like leveraging existing large language models (LLMs) to develop AI systems tailored to India’s priorities and utilising available CPU-based computing for model development.
The book presents strong arguments for embedding AI at the core of the country’s cybersecurity architecture. Kumar also addresses the reality and evolution of information warfare, warning that AI is amplifying, automating and even personalising misinformation. The book calls for urgent technological, regulatory and societal counter-measures to protect truth, democratic institutions and global stability.
AI NATION: BHARAT’S PATH TO AI POWER
By Dr Ajay Kumar
Published by Current Books
Price Rs399; pages 232