AI Impact Summit: India's AI growth is being driven by a youth-focused five-tier architecture, says Ashwini Vaishnau

Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said India is rapidly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) across industries and has already achieved significant results.

“AI applications are growing by nearly 33%, reflecting the speed and scale of technology integration,” he said.

“The government has launched the India AI Mission to strengthen the country's position in the global AI space,” the minister said while speaking at the 2026 Rajasthan Regional AI Impact Conference held in Jaipur.

Highlighting the role of youth, he said a program has been launched to train one million youth in AI skills and the initiative has been started from Rajasthan.

“The aim is to equip young people with AI skills so that they can learn how to apply AI in their lives, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises, so that they can improve their productivity and reap its benefits,” said Ashwini Vaishnau.

Explaining India's AI ecosystem, the minister said it is based on a five-layer architecture.

“Layer 1 is the application layer, where IT companies collaborate to develop AI-driven solutions for industry. Layer 2 consists of AI models, with more than 1 million open source models currently available worldwide, helping to increase productivity and innovation.” Layer 3, he said, is the chip and semiconductor layer, which is rapidly advancing with major investments in computing infrastructure. “The fourth tier is data centres, with an estimated investment of around $70 billion, forming the backbone of India's digital and AI infrastructure,” added Minister Wierschnow.

Vaishnau emphasized the importance of energy for the growth of AI, saying that the fifth layer, energy, will become important in the coming years.

He added that the Prime Minister has positioned nuclear energy as a clean, reliable and major source of electricity for the future and has taken steps to transparently promote nuclear energy through the proposed legislation.

The minister said the integration of all five layers will form the basis of India's long-term AI strategy and support sustainable technology growth.

“India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is moving forward with a clear and focused vision on artificial intelligence, and the country's strong IT ecosystem is playing a key role in the new technology-driven era,” he added.

It is noteworthy that the AI ​​Impact Summit, which was previously held in the UK, South Korea, and France, will now be held in India.