India Signals Shift from AI Vision to Sovereign Execution with the launch of IAIRO

~ The execution engine for India's AI strategy ~

NEW DELHI, Jan. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A decisive shift in India's artificial intelligence journey is in the making with the formal launch of Indian AI Research Organisation (IAIRO), a pioneering institution and a national beacon dedicated to foundational and applied AI research aligned with India's core challenges and priorities. Aimed at catalysing the shift - from strategy formulation to sovereignty and streamlined execution from prototypes and IP to global products - the launch of IAIRO comes at a pivotal moment backed by a position paper titled 'Sovereign AI for India's Strategic Autonomy' by Dr Amit Sheth, the Founding Director of IAIRO.

Aligned with the IndiaAI Mission, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), and the Gujarat AI Action Plan along with The Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) as an Anchor Partner, IAIRO will focus on - Advancing frontier AI research and creating sovereign intellectual property; Building and retaining world-class AI talent within India; Translating research into real-world, high-impact deployments for economic and social impact; and Supporting evidence-led policy for robust, secure, and trustworthy AI. Unlike consumer-oriented large language models (LLMs) that are 'monolithic and generalistic', IAIRO will focus on next generation of AI models, that are custom (domain specific), compact (small), neurosymbolic (utilizing not just data but knowledge and human expertise), within a composite framework (involving hybrid agents). This will make them much more cost effective to train and deploy. Such models are expected to be at the core of global products supporting high value, mission critical enterprise applications as well.

IAIRO is firmly committed to establishing, for AI, the same concentrated national capability that ISRO achieved for the space sector. The organisation's unique ecosystem will nurture talent, develop sovereign intellectual property, bring on board entrepreneurs in residence and startups, with close engagement of investors seeking to support deep tech AI startups. This approach ensures that ideas are not only developed but also translated into tangible products, ultimately scaling up to create a significant impact at the population level across the nation.

Commenting on the founding of IAIRO, Dr. Amit Sheth said, "As AI rapidly reshapes economic competitiveness, governance capacity, and national security, India is moving to ensure that its AI future is built in India, for India, and governed by Indian institutions. IAIRO has been established to serve as the country's long-term execution engine—converting national AI ambition into deployable systems, sovereign intellectual property, and enduring capability."

Dr. Sheth has also discussed the desire to avoid consumer-centric AI in the form of LLMs, which requires costing massive resources in technologies that is quickly being commoditized. This is in line with recent observations at the World Economic Forum by Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw about the need for India to follow its own path by including small language model development as part of the national AI strategy.

"The articulation of Union Minister Vaishnaw at Davos marked a clear inflection point. India's AI agenda is no longer exploratory. It is entering a mission-mode phase, requiring dedicated institutions, long-term capital, deep talent, and translational capability. IAIRO has been created precisely to meet this need," Dr. Sheth added.

IAIRO represents a new institutional model for India, one that integrates frontier research, talent development, ecosystem partnerships, and real-world deployment within a single national mandate. Established as a public-private-partnership, IAIRO will focus on AI systems that address India-specific challenges at population scale — across governance, healthcare, climate resilience, language inclusion, digital public infrastructure, and strategic sectors — while generating sovereign IP of global relevance. Unlike conventional research centres, IAIRO is designed as an execution-first institution, bridging the gap between foundational science and deployment, and ensuring that AI innovation translates into measurable national outcomes. IAIRO will play a meaningful role in catalysing innovation in AI, through its unique breakthrough to breakout strategy, which includes entrepreneur-in-residence programs, applied labs, and venture-creation pathways.

With a board comprising industry stalwarts including Padma Bhushan recipient Dr. Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman, Mission Governing Board, National Quantum Mission, Prof. Rajat Moona, Director of IIT Gandhinagar, and Smt. P. Bharati, Secretary, Department of S&T, Government of Gujarat. The approved board expansion will bring Shri Sharad Sharma, Founder of iSPIRIT and a former key member of the team that developed India's digital stack, Shri Abhishek Singh, CEO of the IndiaAI Mission and Prof. Ramesh Jain, Director at the Institute of Health at UC-Irvine and regarded as the Father of Multimedia.

IAIRO's founding team comprises Prof. Ramesh Jain, Prof. Dev Niyogi (UNESCO Chair for AI, Water & Cities), Prof. Sanjay Chaudhary (Ahmedabad University), Juhi Bhatnagar (Growth Operator, VC and Wharton MBA - Snap, MuSigma, Swiggy and Forj Capital) and Selvam Velmurugan (Seasoned Engineering Leader – Amazon, Netflix, Vulcan, BlinkRx) and Dr Amit Sheth. Similarly, IAIRO's many distinguished advisors include Prof. Srinivasan Parthasarathy (Ohio State University), Prof. Vasant Hanover (Penn State University), L. Venkata Subramanium (Quantum AI and IBM), and some of the top technical and engineering leaders from the industry including IBM Research, Google, DeepMind, OpenAI, Apple, and Amazon.

During his 44+ years in the USA, Dr. Sheth, an educator, researcher, and entrepreneur has been instrumental in building some of the most respected research organisations in the USA. He is one of the highly cited authors in the world in his area, has developed exceptional technical talents by supervising over 55 Ph.D. students and Postdocs, licensed his university research and IP to launch multiple AI startups, and led the development of multiple products including the first commercial semantic search engine. Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to 'nation build', Dr. Sheth, recently returned to help shape India's sovereign AI mission.

As India prepares to host the AI Impact Summit, the launch of IAIRO underscores a broader national intent, to pair ambition with institution-building, and innovation with sovereignty. In doing so, India positions itself not merely as a participant in the global AI race, but as a shaper of its own AI destiny.

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