Desi AI: A blueprint for leadership

Anthropic’s release of Claude Cowork and Claude Code triggered a sharp dip in Indian IT stocks, signalling a vastly changed technology ecosystem. India’s manpower-intensive services companies are clearly under threat from artificial intelligence (AI), and a transition to an intellectual property-driven future leveraging AI is now an existential necessity. When confronted in Davos recently with the label “second-tier AI power”, Union Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw gave a thoughtful riposte, laying out a layered AI taxonomy and arguing that leadership in many of the layers makes India decidedly not second tier.