3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Aug 3, 2026 10:58 AM IST
Artificial intelligence is redefining industries, economies and geopolitics at an unprecedented pace. As nations compete to build frontier AI capabilities, debates around technological sovereignty, open versus closed-source models, compute infrastructure and the future of large language models are taking centre stage. For India, this is a defining moment — not only to harness AI at scale, but also to build globally competitive AI platforms that reflect the country’s unique strengths, languages and ambitions.
Few people are better placed to explore these questions than Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV Partners, and Pratyush Kumar, Co-founder and CEO of Sarvam AI, who will be guests at the Express Adda on Monday. They will be in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, Indian Express Group, and Soumyarendra Barik, Assistant Editor, The Indian Express.
One of India’s most influential technology investors, Rajan has spent over two decades shaping the country’s digital ecosystem — from leading Google India and Southeast Asia, and Microsoft India, to backing the next generation of AI and emerging technology startups through Peak XV’s Surge programme. He is a leading voice on India’s AI opportunity, arguing that the country’s success will depend on building affordable, indigenous AI capabilities and a strong innovation ecosystem.
Pratyush is among the key architects of India’s sovereign AI movement. Before founding Sarvam AI, he helped build AI4Bharat, one of the country’s most significant open-source initiatives for Indian language AI. Under his leadership, Sarvam has rapidly emerged as a frontrunner in India’s effort to develop homegrown foundation models and full-stack AI infrastructure, with a vision of building AI that is developed, deployed and governed in India for population-scale use cases.
Sarvam recently said that it was building a trillion-plus-parameter foundation model from scratch in India, aimed at tasks including coding, cybersecurity, scientific research and simulation. It is pitching its models as a significantly cheaper alternative for enterprise and voice-AI deployments, compared to its American counterparts.
The company also announced speech recognition support across all 22 scheduled Indian languages, models to parse through bulk records, and collaborations for sovereign AI in government and regulated sectors. It showcased use cases for its smart glasses, introduced multilingual voice-led commerce, and plans to run India-built AI models aboard an orbital data-centre satellite.
The Express Adda is a series of informal interactions organised by The Indian Express Group and features those at the centre of change.
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Previous guests include Union Ministers S Jaishankar, Mansukh Mandaviya and Hardeep Singh Puri; Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen; Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran; His Holiness the Dalai Lama; cricket icons Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma; chess legend Viswanathan Anand; Olympic gold medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra; and, motivational strategist Gaur Gopal Das.