NASSCOM urges India to review AI procurement to favor domestic models over Big Tech

India's NASSCOM has asked the government to revise public procurement for AI so domestic foundation models like Sarvam AI and BharatGen get preferential treatment over Google and Meta. Current L1 lowest-bidder tenders put local developers at a disadvantage against global giants, the body warned.

• NASSCOM represents over 3,500 member companies, including TCS and Cognizant
• AI tenders follow the L1 lowest-bidder rule, favoring price over local models
• NASSCOM cited China's protected market for homegrown AI models
• IndiaAI Mission has an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore