India’s IT company Tech Mahindra has begun building its own AI world models, capable of simulating real world scenarios for sectors like telecom and healthcare, in its bid to stay ahead of the AI curve in India.
“At this point in time customers are not asking for [such models] , but in six months to one year they are going to ask that the AI be contextually relevant to the change that appears in a process. Attention to such levers allows Tech Mahindra to plan future actions,” said Nikhil Malhotra, Chief Innovation Officer and Global Head of AI and Emerging Tech, Tech Mahindra.
Currently, 70 per cent of Tech Mahindra’s new, large deals (TCV of $1 billion as per Q3 earnings) have AI embedded into them. It is also delving into the problems of security with the advent of Anthropic’s MCP protocol, and test how MCP security needs to be done with the agentic enterprise.
Pitfalls of Gen AI
“When the world was talking about Gen AI, we were already talking about agents and the pitfalls of Gen AI, which was responsibility. Today, the world is talking about agentic AI, and we are already saying that unless you cure the LLM or the brain of the system and make it more context-relevant, agents will not work,” said Malhotra.
India should work on world models — that understand cause-and-effect relationships in a given situation — using diverse data specific to the country. The next two-three years are very important in this regard as players will combine the idea of contextual (reasoning) models and world models, and then see how quantum computing joins this space, said Malhotra.
He pointed out that India still lacks in terms of R&D for AI, a situation worsened by the lack of talent sovereignty and capability sovereignty in the country.
“If India has to lead the race for AI, talent has to be created and utilised within the country. There has to be an ecosystem of investment in skills, education and applied research. If you notice, the global landscape of sovereignty, everyone has it. Europe has a regulation-led trust, which is the European Act, and they follow their own structure,” said Malhotra.
Great opportunity
Stating that there is great opportunity in AI world models, Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst at Greyhound Research, voiced confidence in India’s AI roadmap, dismissing the recent fall in IT stocks as “a knee jerk reaction” to global announcements including Anthropic’s new AI plug-ins.
In its latest report on technology reimagination, NITI Aayog called talent, business environment and R&D “critical enablers” for scaling India’s software and SaaS ecosystem.
“The current technology talent pipeline remains service-oriented, requiring a shift toward product lifecycle capabilities and skills in areas like DevSecOps and product management. The ease of doing business also needs improvement, as complex regulations continue to constrain SaaS operations. Streamlined procedures for IP registration, export compliance and talent retention would enhance competitiveness,” said the report.
Published on February 15, 2026
