Most Indians, when they get a job at Microsoft in Seattle, never look back.
Rishi Bal did look back.
He left a comfortable engineering career in the US — at one of the world's most valuable tech companies — and came home to build something India doesn't yet have: its own AI.
Today, Rishi is the CEO of BharatGen — India's first government-funded sovereign AI initiative, anchored at IIT Bombay, supported by the Department of Science & Technology. Under his leadership, the team has just released Param 2 — a 17 billion parameter foundation model, built "from first byte to final model," entirely in India, across 22 Indian languages.
This is a Swades story. For the AI age.
In this conversation with Roshan Cariappa on Bharatvaarta, Rishi unpacks why sovereign AI isn't a buzzword — it's the difference between India having control over its own digital future, or being shut off by a foreign company tomorrow.
What we cover:
- Why he walked away from Microsoft and came home
- What "sovereign AI" really means — the 3 layers nobody explains
- The engine-and-steering-wheel metaphor for AI
- The aircraft analogy: application layer vs ground floor
- BharatGen, Param 2, and the 22-language project
- Why India stands the most to lose from AI disruption
- The "free isn't really free" problem with foreign AI
- Why the biggest bottleneck is talent, not technology
- India's "find the India model" approach
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Introduction: Why India Could Lose the AI Race
00:35 Meet Rishi Bal: Building India’s Sovereign AI
01:07 What Does AI Sovereignty Actually Mean?
02:47 Why India Cannot Depend on Foreign AI Forever
04:02 Should India Build Its Own AI Stack?
07:00 Building AI vs Just Using AI
08:00 USA Model vs China Model vs India Model
10:14 India’s Biggest AI Opportunity
12:52 The Hidden Challenge: AI Doesn’t Understand India
14:29 Inside India’s Sovereign AI Mission
16:38 Can India Really Build World-Class AI?
18:15 AI Will Transform Education, Law & Healthcare
21:24 The Hardest Problem in Indian AI
22:39 India’s Biggest AI Bottleneck: Talent
24:07 Advice for Every Student Entering the AI Era
25:24 The Real Cost of Free Technology
27:30 Can Indian AI Compete With OpenAI?
29:18 The UPI Playbook for AI
31:50 Why Ecosystems Matter More Than Startups
33:00 Digitising India’s Knowledge & Manuscripts
34:02 Brain Drain: Why Talent Still Leaves India
35:50 How Governments Are Preparing For AI
37:49 What Rishi Learned Moving From Microsoft To Government
39:15 Why Global Talent Is Looking At India Again
41:00 India’s AI Future: Optimism vs Reality
43:30 What Happens If India Misses This AI Moment?
46:50 Why India Must Become an AI Creator, Not Just a User
47:21 How You Can Contribute To India’s AI Mission
48:15 Final Thoughts
🎙️ ABOUT THE GUEST
Rishi Bal is the CEO of BharatGen — India's first government-funded sovereign AI initiative. Before returning to India, he spent years at Microsoft in Seattle, building enterprise AI and software infrastructure.
BharatGen is anchored under the Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) at IIT Bombay, supported by the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) and the Department of Science & Technology. The team has released Param 2 — a 17 billion parameter foundation model built entirely in India, across 22 Indian languages.
🌐 Website: https://bharatgen.com
💼 Rishi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishibal/
💼 BharatGen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bharatgen
🐦 X / Twitter: @BharatGen_Com
📸 Instagram: @bharatgen_com
🎬 YouTube: @BharatGenOfficial
📘 Facebook: BharatGen
📺 ABOUT BHARATVAARTA
Bharatvaarta hosts long-form conversations on India that matter. Founders, policymakers, diplomats, technologists and thinkers — discussing what's actually happening in the country, not the version on primetime television.
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🌐 https://www.bharatvaarta.in
🐦 X / Twitter: @bharatvaarta
📸 Instagram: @bharatvaarta
🎙️ This is the third episode in our series on India's AI future. If you haven't watched our earlier conversations with Vivek Raghavan (Sarvam AI) and Shashi Shekhar Vempati (AI4India), check those out too.
#RishiBal #BharatGen #Bharatvaarta #SovereignAI #IndiaAI #Param2 #IITBombay #IndianAI #IndiaChatGPT #MadeInIndia #DigitalIndia #DeepTech #ViksitBharat #IndianTech #AIRevolution
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