Imagine a small, ambitious startup trying to win a marathon against global giants like Amazon or Microsoft. That’s what Sarvam, a Bengaluru-based company, is about to attempt. Recently chosen under India’s ₹10,370-crore IndiaAI Mission, Sarvam has been tasked with developing the country’s first indigenous large language model (LLM). This is a historic moment, much like when India launched its first satellite — a mix of hope, pride, and daunting challenges.
So, what’s happening here?
The Indian government’s quick selection of Sarvam, out of 67 applicants within just two to three months, shows urgency and ambition. It reflects what economists call first-mover advantage — the idea that acting quickly in a new industry can give you a lasting lead over others. By investing in GPUs, AI safety institutions, and practical AI applications in agriculture and education, India is trying to build something much bigger: technological sovereignty. This means relying less on foreign tech and creating innovation at home.
Sarvam’s mission isn’t small. They are working on a 70-billion-parameter model — think of it like building a skyscraper where each “floor” represents layers of intelligence. Unlike typical AI models that mainly understand English, Sarvam’s will be optimized for Indian languages. It’s like designing a smartphone that understands not just your words but your accent, emotions, and local slang!
The plan includes three versions:
• Sarvam-Large
• Sarvam-Small
• Sarvam-Edge
These versions aim to support everything from real-time conversations to running on basic devices in villages. The goal is simple but revolutionary: making AI accessible to rural farmers, students, and non-tech-savvy users — basically anyone with a smartphone.
But here’s the catch:
Building the model is just half the battle. Making it commercially successful is much harder.
Think about Hike Messenger or Koo — both had promising starts but struggled when they faced giants like WhatsApp and Twitter. The same economic forces are at play here. In an open global market, Indian companies not only need innovation but also network effects (where more users attract even more users) to survive. Sarvam will face competition from giants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek.
There’s also a hidden economic problem: high fixed costs. Developing AI needs massive investment in GPUs, data centers, and talent — a bit like opening a chain of luxury hotels where every room costs millions to build. If user adoption doesn’t happen quickly, sustaining the business becomes very tough.
Moreover, Sarvam’s model is closed-source, unlike DeepSeek which is open and free for developers to build upon. This could be a double-edged sword. While closed models can maintain quality and security (important for healthcare and finance), they often struggle to build user trust and widespread adoption without transparent operations.
And here’s a real-world twist: even OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman admitted that ChatGPT’s paid version was losing money due to the enormous cost of running powerful models! If OpenAI faces financial strain despite its size, Sarvam’s challenges will be even steeper.
In simple words:
Sarvam is at the beginning of a bold, exciting journey, but like a climber scaling Mount Everest, it must battle harsh winds (global competition), thin air (high costs), and unknown terrains (user adoption and trust).
India’s dream of becoming a global AI powerhouse rides on Sarvam’s shoulders. Success would mean not just pride but a major shift from being a service-driven economy to a product-innovating leader.
Will Sarvam pull it off? Only time — and a lot of smart economic navigation — will tell.
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