Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna outline India’s semiconductor timeline and AI strategy at NDTV Ignite at Davos
Against the backdrop of a rapidly shifting global technology order, NDTV hosted a high-level technology dialogue on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, bringing together IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna and Union Minister for Electronics & IT, Information & Broadcasting, and Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, at the NDTV studios in Davos.
Curated as part of NDTV Ignite at Davos, the conversation reflected on India’s long-term strategy in artificial intelligence and semiconductor manufacturing at a moment when technology leadership is reshaping economic power and geopolitics.
Moderated by Rahul Kanwal, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, NDTV, the discussion examined how India is positioning itself in an intensifying global conversation dominated by the United States and China, and how the country intends to build sovereign capability across critical technologies.
A key highlight came when Minister Vaishnaw announced an updated timeline for India’s first domestically manufactured semiconductor. Referring to the symbolic ’empty nail’ in his office, he said India’s first wafer will be produced in FY 2027–28 from the Tata facility at Dholera, with a phased roadmap that will take the country to 7-nanometre technology by 2030 and 3-nanometre chips by 2032.
Arvind Krishna said India’s step-by-step approach was both necessary and strategically sound, stressing that semiconductor manufacturing cannot be leapfrogged. Even at 28 nanometers, he noted, manufacturers must place billions of transistors with near-perfect precision, adding that China, despite decades of investment, has yet to reach the absolute leading edge.
The conversation also turned to India’s emerging AI strategy, with both leaders arguing that the future of artificial intelligence will be driven not only by scale but by specialized, sovereign models tailored to national needs.
Vaishnaw said India is building a portfolio of such models through startups and academic institutions and disclosed that an Indian-developed sovereign model has already been used in a recent national security scenario.
On artificial general intelligence, Krishna said the AI race is still at a very early stage, likening it to the opening innings of a Test match. He argued that future breakthroughs will require combining knowledge with machine learning, rather than relying on scale alone.
As NDTV prepares to host the Ind.Ai Summit next month, the Davos dialogue underscores its commitment to curate conversations shaping India’s technology future.
At a time when the global narrative is increasingly mounted as a contest between Washington and Beijing, NDTV Ignite at Davos presented a third perspective – one in which India is steadily building the foundations to emerge as a major technology power.