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India AI applications stack: What the country can bring to the table

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– Professor R.T.Krishnan & N Dayasindhu
IIM Bangalore

Applications in health, agriculture, education, urban management, and disaster preparedness have shown promise. With the right support, many of these can scale to a pan-India market and potentially be bundled into an India AI Applications Stack.

The Economic Survey 2026 is pragmatic about how India can leverage AI. A primary objective of the proposed AI Economic Council for India is Human Primacy and Economic Purpose.

The ultimate success of artificial intelligence (AI) in India will not depend on the size of its Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) clusters, but on how AI applications can help improve the quality of life. Among other things, AI can help ASHA professionals detect high-risk pregnancies, help small farmers significantly reduce pesticide consumption, or improve a child’s reading and math scores in a remote government school.

The Economic Survey 2026 is pragmatic about how India can leverage AI. A primary objective of the proposed AI Economic Council for India is human primacy and economic purpose. Clearly, a national AI adoption policy must be explicitly subordinate to human welfare and economic inclusion. AI needs to be sensitive to domestic economic realities, and the benefits of AI adoption should accrue to all sectors of the economy and all citizens.

Fortunately for us, Indian innovators are deploying AI applications to solve social and economic problems that are immediate and contextual to India. Applications in health, agriculture, education and disaster preparedness have already shown promise. With the right support, many of these can scale to a pan-India market and potentially be bundled into an India AI Applications Stack, which could also be exported to global markets.

Let us look at some interesting initiatives.

Agriculture

Neoperk is a portable device that uses near-infrared spectroscopy and machine learning to analyse soil health instantly without conventional lab chemicals. It provides lab-accurate results for 12 key soil parameters in under five minutes, enabling farmers to make data-backed fertiliser decisions and reduce input expenses.

CottonAce, developed by the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, is an AI-based mobile application that allows farmers to upload photos of trapped pests and receive instant, localised advice on pesticide use. The app helps thousands of smallholder cotton farmers protect their crops from pests like pink bollworm, improving harvest quality and increasing profits.

Niqo Robotics uses AI-powered robots equipped with computer vision (day- and night-time cameras) to identify pests and weeds in real time. This enables targeted pesticide spraying and has reduced pesticide use by 60–90% in some cases, lowering costs for farmers and reducing environmental toxicity.

Cropin is an AI-enabled digital ecosystem spanning farm monitoring, credit risk analytics, and last-mile farmer engagement. It drives sustainable productivity and climate-smart decisions, transforming fragmented farming practices into predictive agricultural systems ready for global scaling.

Education

PadhAI with AI is an AI-powered personalised learning platform designed to tackle poor mathematics learning outcomes in government schools. Within six weeks, the initiative significantly improved pass rates and the performance of high-achieving students. It offers a scalable model for bridging learning gaps in rural Indian education.

Rocket Learning has developed an AI-powered learning companion called Appu (a generative-AI elephant) that interacts with parents and children via WhatsApp. It delivers bite-sized, play-based learning activities to help children under six achieve foundational literacy and numeracy.

Belagavi Smart City is integrating deep-learning-enabled eBooks into its public library ecosystem. These eBooks analyse user behaviour and adapt storylines, vocabulary and difficulty levels in real time. The initiative has led to a 12% improvement in reading speed in just two weeks.

Govt’s Role

  • The government can assist in making markets for AI applications
  • It can also set benchmarks for AI in different sectors to encourage their adoption
  • Proven AI applications could be integrated into an India AI Applications Stack

Government as facilitator

The government can play an important role in scaling these grassroots AI innovations into pan-India applications. It can help create markets for AI applications and set benchmarks for AI adoption across sectors.

Proven AI solutions could be integrated into an India AI Applications Stack, enabling plug-and-play deployment across sectors and even across countries.

A strong national governance framework for such a stack—aligned with international standards such as the European GDPR—could allow India’s AI innovations to be adopted globally while ensuring responsible data use and regulatory compliance.

Source: Indian Express