What Does Tech Freedom Truly Mean For India? Industry Leaders Weigh In Ahead Of Independence Day 2026

As India marks 79 years of independence, the conversation around self-reliance has extended well beyond agriculture and manufacturing into technology and artificial intelligence. Free Press Journal asked founders, analysts and industry executives what tech independence means to them today, and their answers point to a common thread - India must move from being one of the world's largest consumers of technology to becoming a genuine creator of it, particularly in AI.

Building core technology within India

Faisal Kawoosa, founder of TechArc, said India has made significant progress in the digital space over the past few decades, but pointed to one gap that still needs urgent attention. "One thing which I definitely would want that gets addressed as soon as possible is that we have the core technologies coming in from India. So along with Viksit Bharat, we have Viksit Tech,' he told FPJ.

Kawoosa's comment reflects a broader industry view that India's technology ambitions need to move upstream, from assembling and deploying global technology to designing the underlying systems themselves.

Native IP and sovereign AI models

Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint Research, framed tech independence as a shift from consumption to creation. According to Pathak, India needs to build more native intellectual property into its digital infrastructure to secure the data of billions of users, and the country's real opportunity in the AI era lies in developing sovereign AI models suited to Indian use cases and user preferences.

"Tech independence for India means not just being a consumer of global technology but also creator of global technology. Our digital infrastructure should have more and more native IP built into it so that we can secure the data of billions of users and at the same time we also believe that real tech independence in the era of AI is to focus more on sovereign AI models that will meet the use cases and the preferences of the users in India and that will be the real tech independence going forward into the next decade," he said.

Semiconductors and the freedom to innovate

Ashok Rajpal, Managing Director of Ambrane India, linked tech independence directly to India's talent pool and its semiconductor ambitions. He explained, "To me ,tech independence is India's talent and ambition to shape the next generation of technology.  As we strengthen our semiconductor ecosystem and reduce dependence, we create the freedom to innovate faster."

Rajpal's remarks underline how hardware self-reliance, particularly in chipmaking, is increasingly being viewed by industry as foundational to India's broader tech goals.

Democratised access for a young population

Ipshita Chowdhury, Marketing Head at Motorola, connected tech independence to India's demographic profile, noting that 65 percent of the country's population is under the age of 35. "That just opens up a world of opportunity. True tech independence in my opinion would be when this large cohort has 100 percent democratised access to creativity, to learning, to knowledge, and just to be more. When each and every Indian can leverage tech in today's AI-first world to learn, to create, to innovate, and just improve their lives in a manner that's safe, secure, and protects their basic rights. That would be true tech independence for me," she quipped.

Taken together, these perspectives suggest that for India's technology industry, independence in 2026 is no longer just about reducing import dependence. It spans building indigenous core technologies and semiconductors, developing sovereign AI models tailored to Indian users, and ensuring that access to these advances reaches across the country's young and aspirational population.

Published on: Friday, August 14, 2026, 10:00 AM IST