New Delhi, Feb. 2 -- On 29 January, the 2026 Economic Survey flagged the need for India to take a cautious approach in developing artificial intelligence. On Sunday, the outlay proposed for the India AI Mission in the Union Budget was halved. This comes days before the Centre hosts the who's-who of AI at a summit this month.

With these mixed signals, the question that arises is whether India is no longer bullish on AI. Mint answers.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned AI in her speech 11 times in total, which is decidedly more than before. AI was mentioned in connection with offering public services, assessing its impact on jobs and skills, a multilingual tool for agricultural information-based services, use by customs agencie...