Maharashtra chief secretary warns against technological dependence, advocates for sovereign AI

MUMBAI: Warning against technological dependence, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Rajesh Aggarwal on Tuesday made a strong case for "sovereign AI", citing what he described as the quiet external takeover of Venezuela's critical infrastructure as a cautionary tale.

"We saw Americans just going to another country and picking up their President, very silently, very recently, and obviously people have different conjectures. No one really knows what happened outside, but probably they got full grip over their power grid many months back and sold into many of their systems," said Aggarwal, and warned that without its own AI capabilities, India risked becoming "a slave again — of a different kind."




"So unless we are good at AI and we are good at manufacturing and the whole supply chain of the entire thing, our sovereignty will also be at stake in future," he warned at the day-long conclave on AI for Science at IIT Bombay, one of the precursor meetings to the AI Impact summit in February.

An IIT Delhi alumnus, Aggarwal recalled his own work on artificial intelligence dating back to the late 80s, when he worked on what he described as an early "nano-AI" system that could generate code from natural language prompts. Noting that nearly 60% of India's data centres are located in Maharashtra, he said technological sovereignty was no longer optional, but strategic.

"Let's work together on this and ensure that we remain sovereign. AI is going to be a very different beast from other inventions till now, and if we lag behind, probably we will be slaves again in a different way," he said.

Earlier, Richa Bagla, Maharashtra principal secretary (finance), accounts and treasuries, said digital platforms were no longer just systems of record, but systems of intelligence.

"AI can definitely help in predictive analytics for cash flow, revenue trends and expenditure patterns. It can help with early warning systems for abnormal transactions, fraud detection and risk profiling," she said. "AI can greatly improve and expedite automated compliance and audit readiness, thus reducing manual intervention. And not just this, decision support systems for budget formulation and outcome-based monitoring, but also intelligent, grievous and exception handling for faster service delivery are some of the key areas in which AI can be a strong backbone," said Bagla.

IIT Bombay director Shireesh Kedare summed it up when he said, "The short-term impact of AI is over-estimated and the long-term impact of AI is mostly under-estimated."

Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Abhay Karandikar, said AI may have a deeper role than what it is currently perceived to achieve. "If scientific discoveries get disrupted by AI, it will have a far more effect and impact than what is currently being thought … because there is a possibility of disrupting even the scientific principles."