Press Releases

Foundation Day 2025

New Delhi

India should make own LLMs to avoid importing biases: Nandan Nilekani

Avoiding the biases built into the foreign large language models (LLMs) is one reason why India should build own LLMs, according to Mr Nandan Nilekani, Co-Founder and Chairman, Infosys Technologies Limited.

Addressing India’s management leadership at the 69th Foundation Day of All India Management Association (AIMA), Mr Nilekani said that India should not get into the kind of LLMs that are being built by the big four AI companies with a collective investment of $300 billion. He argued that the reasoning and inference functionalities are expensive to compute and India cannot afford that, however, India should make its own LLMs once it becomes commoditized and LLMs can be made for $50 million.

Mr Nilekani said that India needs to first focus on learning how to use AI at scale. He said that the government will pioneer population scale applications of AI, such as cash transfers for farmers and voice payments, and then the private sector could also do it. He believes AI and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) will feed off each other, with the DPI providing the data and AI turbocharging the DPI. He dismissed concerned about privacy saying anonymized data used to train AI is not an issue. 

The most immediate use case for AI at scale in India is language, according to Mr Nilekani. “Language has a multiplier effect in India,” he said, adding that AI enabling anybody to use computer and the internet by speaking in own language and dialect would remove a big impediment.

Talking about ‘finternet’, Mr Nilekani said that tokenization of all assets, including bonds, deposits, art, real estate and animals, would make them more easy to trade and possible to fractionalize. Tokenization would also enable 24x7 stock trading. The transaction could still be done in official money, he said. AI application to electricity ecosystem will be another major use case of the technology and it would allow anybody with solar panel or EV battery to buy and sell electricity to the grid, he said.

During the session, Mr Nilekani presented AIMA’s Fellowships to Dr Bhimaraya Metri, Director, IIM-Nagpur, and Prof Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIM-Bangalore for their contribution to management education.

The session was moderated by Mr Nalin Mehta, Managing Editor, Moneycontrol and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. It was livestreamed on AIMA’s social media network.

India needs to cut tariffs for its own good: Niti Ayog CEO

Tariff does not protect anybody and India needs to cut tariffs for its own good, irrespective of who tells India to do so, said Mr BVR Subrahmanyam, CEO, NITI Aayog at the 69th Foundation Day of All India Management Association (AIMA).

Addressing India’s management leadership, he emphasized that being open to the world has to be among the top five priorities of India if its wants to become a developed country. To cut tariffs, India must complete trade agreements with the EU, the UK and other major economies, Mr Subramanyam said. 

Niti Ayog CEO stressed that deregulation at both centre and the state levels are critical for making India a part of the global supply chains. There is interest in India but people visit, see and fly to other countries, he said. He pointed that Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey and others have been beneficiary of China plus one strategy of global companies. He argued that global value chain needs more than PLI - it needs deregulation and skilling too. He called the paperwork involved in business horrendous, which is killing the MSMEs.

Niti Ayog is trying to push India into global supply chains in different sectors, said Mr Subramanyam. He informed that Ayog’s recommendations for the electronics component supply chain are awaiting cabinet clearance and it is working on the steps needed by  auto component, chemicals, textiles and footwear sectors to join global supply chains. He informed that Niti Ayog has conceptualized a national manufacturing mission which will be launched in three months. The mission will coordinate the manufacturing related policies of more than 20 ministries.

Along with manufacturing, education and agriculture have to be the top three priorities of the country to become a developed country, according to Niti Ayog CEO. He said that India has a conundrum of a large population with vacant jobs because of a paucity of relevant skills. Agriculture has to be transformed by shifting it away from rice and wheat to horticulture, floriculture, dairy and such activities.

Speaking about disparity between states, Mr Subramanyam said that the states that offer the best education and the best business experience are richer and growing richer. He emphasized that states also need to be open to enterprises from other states because only the local entrepreneurs cannot develop states. “Enterprise should flow freely and restrictions will only push states back,” he said.

Niti Ayog CEO said that the system of rating states is effective in convincing them to reform. He said that the fiscal health index of states is a diagnostic tool which rates them on the efficiency of their budget management and not just the size of their economy. “Some states promise incentives but cannot write checks,” he said.

Mr Subramanyam invited AIMA to work with Niti Ayog in training the management of India’s medium sized companies to become global companies. 

Niti Ayog CEO, along with Ms Avarna Jain, Vice Chairperson, Saregama & Chairperson, RPSG Lifestyle Media, presented the AIMA Managing India Award for ‘Director of the Year’ to Ms Kiran Rao, Director and Producer, Laapataa Ladies.

The session was moderated by Ms Suneeta Reddy, President, AIMA and Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise. It was livestreamed on AIMA’s social media channels.

CEOs optimistic despite over-regulation, corruption and tariffs

Indian CEOs remain positive about India’s economic growth prospects and mostly score their optimism 8-9 on a scale of 10, even though they find many obstacles to business freedom and investment.

Speaking in a panel discussion at the 69th Foundation Day programme of All India Management Association (AIMA), Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, The Hero Enterprise said that those alive in India today are blessed, as they have high aspirations irrespective of their income levels. Mr Nikhil Sawhney, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Triveni Turbine Ltd, said those still in India believe in the country, else they would have left. Mr Yezdi Nagporewalla, Chief Executive Officer, KPMG in India said that business confidence in India is much higher now as the country is now playing to its strengths of land, infrastructure and talent.

However, Mr Munjal reminded that India still needs to provide free food to 800 million of its people, and India would not become a rich country without those experiencing economic growth.

Speaking on the private sector’s hesitation in investing more, Mr Vineet Aggarwal, Managing Director, Transport Corporation of India, said that policy divergence between the centre and the states, too much regulation, and fear of retribution are still stopping the private sector from investing freely. “Investors do not want to overstep any law or regulation,” he said. He pointed out that while the states encourage big factories, setting up medium and small factories is still hard due to excessive paperwork, land classification, work timings, and corruption. He said that the corruption at the middle and low levels of the government has become worse as the money demanded now is much higher. 

According to Mr Munjal, the existing unused capacity and uncertainty of continuous consumption growth are holding private investment back. He pointed out that lately consumption has lagged, first in the rural areas and now in the urban areas. He said that India needs to not only support the bottom of its population but it also needs to create income opportunities for them in order to continuously grow the demand for Indian industry’s products. He also pointed to the gap between announcement of business-friendly laws and their implementation, citing the case of the labour law reforms announced in 2019 and 2020 that have not been implemented so far. He welcome the budget announcement that all non-financial regulations would be looked at by a committee.

Mr Sanjay Singh, Executive Director, Strategy & External Relations, Jindal Steel & Power said almost entire infrastructure spending is funded by the government and 60% of the steel industry’s output goes to infrastructure creation. 

Mr Sawhney said that India’s future growth depends on its ability to create innovative solutions for its unique needs. He gave the example of the challenge of meeting the cooling needs of India as its economy grows. He said that India needs to develop green refrigerants to address the massive increase in airconditioning. He said that India tends to adopt business models and technologies from abroad towards the fag end of their lifecycle, and India needs to support its startups to look for products to meet Indians’ aspirations and demand. 

Talking about the challenge of reciprocal tariffs by the USA, Mr Sawhney said that only the highly taxed sectors of Indian industry will be affected, such as auto and steel. He pointed out that services, which are the major part of India’s exports to the US, are not covered by tariff action. 

Mr Munjal said that the tariffs and the daily statements by the US president would be disruptive for Indian business but India has the advantage of being seen as an important market and a geopolitical ally. 

On AI’s role in India’s future economic growth, Mr Agarwal said that India can beat the AI advantage by using an AI plus human strategy. He said that India’s lack of entrenched technologies is a blessing as it can start with AI from scratch. Mr Munjal pointed out that India is building own medium and small AI models which will enable it to do things at different prices.

The panel discussion was held as a part of AIMA’s foundation day celebrations. AIMA’s foundation day is also the official National Management Day of India. The proceedings are being streamed live on AIMA’s social media channels.