India must choose: Import AI breakthroughs or create them, says Lightspeed’s Hemant Mohapatra

India’s latest budget, with its sizable allocation for roads, rails, and logistics, has been lauded for driving economic growth. Yet it largely sidesteps the question of how to anchor the nation’s future in artificial intelligence. Critics might argue that India cannot afford moonshot pursuits, but history shows that countries commanding the deepest layers of a transformational technology—like oil in the early 20th century or semiconductors in the late 20th—often gain decades of sustained advantage. This is India’s “DeepSeek moment,” a juncture where we must decide whether to simply import AI breakthroughs or help create them.