India Wants Its AI Talent Back; But What’s The Incentive?
by Ankush Das · Inc42SUMMARY
- India has launched the PMRC scheme to attract global Indian researchers, but can fellowships and funding create the conditions needed for frontier AI breakthroughs to happen at home?
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For decades, India has exported some of its brightest minds to the world’s leading research labs. Researchers of Indian origin have helped shape breakthroughs at OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic and Meta, contributing to technologies that are now redefining economies and industries. Yet very few of these breakthroughs are happening in India.
The government’s Prime Minister Research Chair (PMRC) scheme seeks to change just that. The initiative aims to attract accomplished Indian-origin researchers, scientists and technologists from global institutions to work with premier universities and national laboratories in India. The scheme covers thirteen strategic sectors, including AI, semiconductors and quantum computing, and offers research grants, infrastructure support and institutional backing.
While India recognises that getting its talent back will solidify its position on the AI world map, the launch of PMRC also raises a larger question: why would the world’s best AI researchers choose India over Silicon Valley? Let’s try to understand in this edition of The AI Shift.