In June 2018 NITI Aayog, the Indian government’s policy think tank, published the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence under the banner #AIforAll. It set out a framework for India to become a leader in applying AI to inclusive social and economic development, following a mandate in the 2018-19 budget to establish a national AI programme.
The strategy prioritised five sectors where AI could have the broadest social impact - healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and mobility - and proposed building research excellence centres, data ecosystems, and responsible-AI practices. Its distinctive framing, #AIforAll, positioned India’s approach around affordability and access for a large developing economy rather than around frontier-model competition.
Why a business reader should care: India’s strategy showed a different national model - using AI for development and public services rather than chasing the largest models - and it laid the groundwork for later moves such as the IndiaAI Mission and the government-backed effort to build a sovereign Indian LLM.