India AI ambitions rely on talent, compute and R&D expansion, KPMG report says
A new KPMG study outlines five core pillars to scale emerging technology, pointing to UPI's record growth as the blueprint for national deployment.
India must back its expanding artificial intelligence ambitions with stronger computing infrastructure, research ecosystems, and specialised talent to turn technological advances into broad economic gains, professional services firm KPMG said in a report.
The study highlights technology as a central engine of India's long-term growth, domestic productivity, and global standing. Simply creating cutting-edge tools will not be enough on its own; the country must expand its ability to build, scale, and deploy them across core industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, education, and public governance.
KPMG identified five foundational pillars required to convert emerging technology into measurable economic output:
| Pillar | Strategic focus | Key requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Talent pool | Workforce readiness | Researchers, data scientists, engineers, and technical trades |
| Research & development | Discovery to market | University labs, corporate R&D, and commercialisation channels |
| Compute & data | Digital backbone | Secure, sovereign computing systems and governed data ecosystems |
| Scalable enterprises | Commercial execution | Start-ups and established corporations deploying products at scale |
| Digital infrastructure | Public innovation base | Open platforms enabling widespread economic participation |
The digital infrastructure blueprint
The report points to India's digital public infrastructure as a proven template for national technology rollouts. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) serves as the primary example of how a well-designed public platform can transform an entire economy by letting businesses innovate on top of open rails.
UPI processed over 24,161 crore transactions valued at approximately Rs 314 lakh crore during the 2025–26 financial year. By June 2026, the payments platform had onboarded 55.49 crore users, illustrating the country's capacity to build and operate sovereign digital architecture at an unmatched scale.
Extending that success beyond payments to frontier sectors offers India its next major leap. KPMG noted that the same collaborative approach can accelerate semiconductors, quantum computing, space exploration, commercial drones, green hydrogen, rare earth processing, and biotechnology.
Delivering practical economic value
To capture those opportunities, the report calls for deeper partnerships between university research laboratories and industry to move discoveries swiftly out of academic settings and into commercial production.
Artificial intelligence demands massive data processing power alongside well-governed, ethical, and secure data regimes. Strengthening domestic server capacity and clean datasets will ensure Indian enterprises and researchers can develop models locally rather than depending entirely on foreign infrastructure.
"Technology, after all, is only as valuable as the outcomes it enables," the report noted, underlining that national competitive strength will ultimately depend on whether India can institutionalise these technologies safely and inclusively across everyday public and private life.
Key numbers
| What | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| UPI transaction volume (FY26) | 24,161 crore | KPMG report |
| UPI transaction value (FY26) | Rs 314 lakh crore | KPMG report |
| UPI onboarded users as of June 2026 | 55.49 crore | KPMG report |
In this story
| Name | Role in the story |
|---|---|
| India | Country whose emerging technology and AI ambitions are assessed in the report |
| KPMG | Author of the report outlining India's technological and infrastructure requirements |
| Unified Payments Interface | India's digital payments network cited as a benchmark for public infrastructure deployment |
