India, Dec. 7 -- Till the end of 2024, India's stance on building homegrown foundational or large language models (LLMs) was ambiguous. One year later, all that has changed. Sovereign AI and homegrown large language models became a dominant theme for AI in India in 2025.

Despite the government announcing the INR 10,300 Cr IndiaAI Mission early last year, timelines for investment were vague, execution plans were still evolving, and many of India's top tech leaders openly argued against India's need for building LLMs.

But 2025 changed the equation. Beyond the buzz around agentic AI, the defining theme in India's AI landscape this year became the government's hunt for LLM builders. The urgency intensified after China's DeepSeek unveiled it...