The ultimate success of artificial intelligence (AI) in India will not depend on the size of the GPU cluster, but on how India’s AI applications help improve the quality of life of its citizens. Among other things, AI can help ASHA experts detect the number of high-risk pregnancies, help small-scale farmers significantly save on pesticide consumption, and significantly improve the reading and math performance of children in public schools in remote areas.
Economic Survey 2026 is realistic about how India can leverage AI. The main objectives of the proposed AI Economic Council for India are human superiority and economic objectives. It is clear that national AI adoption policies must clearly subordinate human welfare and economic inclusion. AI must be sensitive to national economic realities, and the benefits of AI implementation should accrue to all sectors of the economy and all citizens.
Fortunately for us, Indian innovators are deploying AI applications to solve social and economic problems that are relevant to India. It is expected to have applications in health, agriculture, education, urban management, and disaster prevention. With the right support, many of these can be scaled to pan-India markets and, in the future, bundled with Indian AI application stacks and taken to global markets.
Let’s take a look at some interesting initiatives.
health care
Niramai has developed a non-invasive, privacy-friendly breast cancer screening tool that uses AI-powered thermal imaging instead of traditional mammography. This tool allows early detection of abnormalities in women of all ages, including those with dense breast tissue where mammograms often fail. Portability and low cost enable mass screening in rural and semi-urban areas.
Qure.ai is an AI tool that analyzes X-rays and CT scans in seconds and detects over 35 conditions, including tuberculosis, lung cancer, and heart failure. This solution is highly effective in resource-constrained environments where radiologists are unavailable and facilitates rapid triage and treatment in remote locations.
AISteth, an AI-powered stethoscope, converts heart and lung sounds into visual waveforms for accurate remote diagnosis. This low-cost device has an accuracy of 93% and will enable frontline healthcare workers in rural India to detect heart and respiratory problems earlier. This has the potential to fill critical gaps in specialist care and strengthen India’s public health system.
agriculture
Neoperk is a portable device that uses near-infrared spectroscopy and machine learning to instantly analyze soil health without the use of traditional laboratory chemicals. This provides laboratory-accurate results for 12 key soil parameters within 5 minutes. This enables farmers to make data-driven decisions about fertilizer use, improving soil health and reducing input costs.
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Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence’s CottonAce is an AI-based mobile app that allows farmers to upload photos of trapped pests and instantly receive local advice on pesticide spraying. The app helps thousands of small-scale cotton farmers protect their crops from pests such as pink bollworm, leading to higher quality harvests and higher profit margins.
Niqo Robotics uses AI-powered robots with computer vision (day and night cameras) to identify pests and weeds in real-time. This allows for selective spraying, ensuring chemicals are applied only where needed. This has significantly reduced pesticide use (up to 60-90% in some cases), lowering costs for farmers and reducing environmental toxicity.
Cropin is an AI-enabled digital ecosystem spanning farm monitoring, credit risk analysis, and last-mile farmer engagement. Drive sustainable productivity and climate-smart decision-making, and transform fragmented practices into predictive farming systems that can scale globally.
education
PadhaiWithAI uses an AI-powered personalized learning platform designed to address low math learning outcomes in public schools. This initiative significantly improved pass rates and top performer performance within just six weeks. It serves as a scalable model to bridge the learning gap in rural education in India.
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Rocket Learning has an AI-powered learning companion, Appu (a generative AI elephant), that interacts with parents and children through WhatsApp. We offer bite-sized, play-based activities to help children under 6 develop basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Belagavi Smart City integrates deep learning-enabled e-books into the public library ecosystem. These books are designed to analyze user behavior and adjust storyline, vocabulary, and difficulty in real time to increase engagement and comprehension. My reading speed increased by 12% in just 2 weeks.
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The government can become a powerful ecosystem orchestrator of these grassroots AI innovations and help scale them up into big applications that will impact all over India. A key area of focus for governments is likely to be helping shape the market for these AI applications.
For example, governments can facilitate the procurement of enhanced domestic AI applications to provide solutions to government (including state) departments, hospitals, schools, etc. Additionally, by setting benchmarks for AI in sectors such as health, agriculture, and education, governments can create a trusted environment for customers and citizens to adopt AI.
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Once these AI applications are proven, the government could accelerate the integration of the most impactful applications into the India AI application stack, a solution built for India’s scale and diversity that can be deployed globally. Leverage platforms such as the Global Partnership for AI.
India’s strong national governance framework for AI application stacks is aligned with international frameworks such as Europe’s GDPR, making the stack plug-and-play in many countries.
Rishikesha T. Krishnan is Professor of Strategy at IIM Bangalore. N Dayasindhu is co-founder and CEO of itihaasa Research and Digital.
