By Bl New Delhi

Copyright thehindubusinessline

With the industry adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday flagged the issue of demand-supply mismatch. She stressed for regulations that foster and not stifle technology innovations for the common good.

“To accelerate growth in our economy, productivity needs to improve and for that AI adaption by industry is a must. Many of them are doing it, but there is a mismatch. They are doing AI adoption, but the market is not giving them AI ready human resources,” Sithraman said while releasing a Niti Ayog report on ‘Roadmap for AI for Viksit Bharat An Opportunity for Accelerated Economic Growth’ along with Electronic and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

According to her, the government is determined to not only adopt AI technologies but also ensure their responsible application across various sectors. ”We do not want regulation that literally wipe out technology itself. We want regulations because we want responsible application,” she said.

Sandboxes provide a testing ground for regulatory mechanisms, enabling a balanced approach that fosters innovation while ensuring necessary oversight, she said, adding, this helps prevent over-regulation that could kill the technology itself.

“India is a country which can understand the implication of a good which comes in our way, although a good is never unmitigated, a good is never without riders, a good is never – on its own – good, it is for us all to use in such a way that it is for the common good.

Talking about the challenges, she said, there can be an impact on demographic dividend if adequate upskilling is not provided. “I don’t think it’s a gloomy picture of so many people who are going to get thrown out of jobs due to AI. In terms of AI-driven upskilling programs, I would want more inputs to come to the government to see how best we can use it,” she said.

Ashwini Vaishnaw said: “we are passing through very interesting times when the world is going through so much of turbulence, India is very stable growing at a consistent rate.” Stressing that the growth is inclusive and robust, he said, it’s driven by technology and technology is the fundamental base of this growth.

“Over the last few decades, the biggest change which has happened, and the biggest factor which has joined this constellation of technologies, is AI, because AI is now affecting practically everything that we do,” he said.

The report said that accelerated adoption of AI across industries can contribute $500-600 billion to India’s GDP by 2035 on the back of increased productivity and efficiency in the workforce. Further, it said that over the next decade, the adoption of AI across sectors is expected to add $17-26 trillion to the global economy.

It also said the analysis shows that financial services and manufacturing can be most impacted and might have up to 20-25 per cent of their sectoral GDP attributed to AI by 2035. AI-led productivity and efficiency improvement could unlock $50-55 billion in financial services, over and above the current estimated growth for the sector by 2035.

Published on September 15, 2025