Back in January, when China’s Deepseek R1 model stunned the world with its performance and low training cost, India was thinking only one thing – how do we beat it? How do we become a global AI superpower? 

But when it comes to the AI race, India has been stuck at the starting line for quite a while now. Its approach has largely been to throw things at the wall in the hope that something eventually sticks. 

Now, Deepseek  has really amped up the pressure. India’s electronics and IT ministry, or Meity, has swung into action. It has been announcing housekeeping steps for the country’s year-old AI mission at a speed that can match the language model advances hitting the headlines. 

But in the process, the actual goal of the mission has become more incoherent than ever. 

Tune in. 

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.