India, March 13 -- On March 2024, the Indian government allocated about INR 10K crore towards the India AI mission. The paltry $1.25 billion budget got a lukewarm response at a time when Big Techs were spending multi-billion dollars each quarter buying the coveted AI chips.

The AI race had turned into a spending spree where government spending of $1.25 billion seemed inadequate. Fast forward to 2025, and the Indian government stands vindicated in its prudence. It was easy to get carried away as the American companies did by announcing massive half-a-trillion-dollar investments.

Within days of the announcement of Stargate, amid much fanfare, a bombshell was dropped by a little-known Chinese startup. The emergence of Deepseek-R1 from Chin...