{
  "id": 7213249,
  "title": "India is facing a tech crisis. But it can still catch up",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/india-is-facing-a-tech-crisis-but-it-can-still-catch-up",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-14T00:50:50.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Indian Express",
    "slug": "the-indian-express",
    "url": "https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/india-is-facing-a-tech-crisis-but-it-can-still-catch-up-10876681/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "India finds itself in a technological crisis as US and Chinese firms roll out increasingly capable AI models. However, India lacks a competitive frontier model and faces a bleak outlook without significant policy changes. The impact of AI can be separated into two categories: routine job automation and strategic impact on research, cybersecurity, and defence. India's active startup ecosystem is already building applications, but the strategic implications remain uncertain. While frontier models like Anthropic’s Mythos and Chinese open-weight models exist, access is limited. The US has temporarily imposed export restrictions on these models, potentially restricting AI access for India. Some Indian IT industry leaders suggest focusing on applications rather than frontier models, a view backed by certain Indian experts. However, falling behind in AI could result in similar consequences to those who missed the Industrial Revolution. India can potentially catch up by leveraging scaling laws that predict model performance improvements with size and training computing power. The main bottleneck lies in the lack of computing power, as demonstrated by IndiaAI's 45,000 GPUs, which is still a fraction of what a single US frontier lab controls. To overcome this gap, India could establish data centres dedicated to computing capacity, but their primary use will likely benefit MNCs rather than India. Implementing a \"compute tax\" requiring a portion of computing capacity to be reserved for a national compute pool could help alleviate the shortage. However, MNCs may resist this proposal, and alternative solutions need to be explored.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [
    "India faces tech crisis due to US, Chinese AI advancements",
    "Lack of competitive frontier model threatens India's AI future",
    "Compute tax proposed to address AI access gap"
  ],
  "editors_take": "India's lag in frontier AI models threatens its competitiveness, but leveraging scaling laws and boosting computing power, possibly through a \"compute tax\" on MNCs, could help the country catch up.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Indian Express - India",
        "title": "Defence to space, trade to tech: India, Philippines to deepen ties",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/13/defence-to-space-trade-to-tech-india-philippines-to-deepen-ties",
        "published": "2026-09-13T23:11:28.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}