Dell Technologies has shared India-specific insights from a new study by International Data Corporation (IDC), commissioned by Dell Technologies, to examine how Asia Pacific governments are approaching Sovereign AI.
The findings are drawn from a dedicated IDC InfoBrief, Building a Sovereign AI Foundation for the India Government (read here). This reveals that India’s public sector leaders are pursuing one of the most distinctive Sovereign AI strategies in the Asia Pacific region, where regulation and innovation are tightly coupled through national digital infrastructure, rather than separate workstreams.
India has taken a distinctive approach to AI sovereignty – operationalising it through proven national digital public infrastructure platforms such as Aadhaar, UPI, ONDC, and Bhashini. This embeds governance, data stewardship, and trust by design into the fabric of national operations.
“India has built something truly pioneering; a digital public infrastructure that functions as both a governance framework and an innovation platform,” said Manish Gupta, President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies India. “Sovereign AI in India isn’t a policy aspiration; it’s being engineered into the foundations of how the nation operates. Dell Technologies is committed to partnering with government leaders to strengthen the infrastructure, talent, and security capabilities that will power this vision at national scale.”
India’s Government Sector: From Strategy to Action
The findings show a market that has moved decisively from awareness into action. Nearly all Indian government leaders surveyed are actively pursuing some level of Sovereign AI, with 46% evaluating technologies and a further 46% already running proofs of concept. An additional 4% have moved beyond experimentation into significant investment, underscoring growing institutional confidence in scaling sovereign AI capabilities.
Nearly three-quarters (73.3%) see Sovereign AI as essential for protecting sensitive national data and ensuring local regulatory compliance, a foundational concern for any government handling citizen data at country-wide scale. However, the ambition extends beyond data protection with 70% viewing Sovereign AI investment as a strategic hedge against geopolitical risk and supply chain disruption, reflecting a broader national security calculus that goes well beyond IT governance.
When it comes to where that investment is being directed, national security and defence leads at 46%, followed by procurement and supply chain at 36%. This directly illustrates India’s twin priorities of strategic autonomy and operational resilience.
India Leads on Agentic AI Readiness
India’s government leaders are not just moving fast; they are moving with a clear view of where AI is heading next. Almost all respondents (97.7%) express confidence in agentic AI as an adoption accelerator, with 44.4% believing it will play a major role; well above the Asia Pacific average of 36.9%. A further 53.3% support adoption with robust governance guardrails in place, reflecting India’s characteristically balanced approach to innovation and responsible deployment.
Scaling Sovereign AI: The Talent and Security Imperative
The path to scale is not without friction. More than nine in 10 government leaders (92%) identify the need for specialised digital talent as a priority area, with network management and integration, AIOps, and sovereign data governance among the most in-demand competencies. Strengthening cybersecurity posture (cited by 36%) and navigating cross-jurisdictional regulatory frameworks (34%) are identified as the key areas requiring focused attention as adoption scales.
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