Nandan Nilekani, Co-Founder and Chairman of Infosys, emphasized on Monday that India must leverage AI tools to drive growth and make services more accessible to its people. Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, he underscored that India’s strength lies in applying technology at scale.
“For India to achieve 8% growth, we must implement AI at scale, ensuring it remains low-cost and accessible,” Nilekani said. “We need to harness AI for education, healthcare, and language translation, empowering millions across the country.”
The Raisina Dialogue is India’s premier conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, bringing together global leaders from politics, business, media, and civil society. Hosted annually in New Delhi by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs, the event serves as a platform to discuss critical global challenges and foster cooperation.
Nilekani also stressed the importance of Indian businesses using their own data to secure credit through the account aggregator framework. “Currently, only about 10% of personal loans in India utilize this system,” he noted. “Wider adoption could democratize financial services.”
Highlighting another key challenge, he pointed out that nearly 50% of Indian assets are tied up in land, which remains largely illiquid. “Land is not easily tradable or usable as collateral. With innovations like tokenization on public blockchain networks, we can make land assets fungible—allowing people to sell or leverage their land for credit,” he explained.
Nilekani believes unlocking these financial opportunities could initiate a new wave of economic transformation. He also stressed the need to expand India’s entrepreneurial spirit beyond major cities and called for greater formalization of the economy.
“We still have a long way to go in bringing more people into the formal economy,” he said, advocating for business-friendly reforms such as deregulation, reduced compliance burdens, decriminalization of laws, and simplified legal language. “These fundamental changes can drive rapid formalization and help accelerate economic growth from 6% to 8%,” he asserted.
He concluded by highlighting India’s strong foundation for growth, citing improvements in infrastructure, telecommunications, and fintech—sectors that have already made a significant impact on millions of lives, even in remote regions.
