IBM India’s Patel sees ‘digital swaraj’ shaping India’s AI opportunity

Mumbai: IBM India and South Asia managing director Sandip Patel said his call for “digital swaraj” reflects businesses’ and govts’ growing need to exercise greater control over their data, technology assets and the systems that manage them.“I have started calling this the era of digital swaraj. In a predominantly digital world and a global digital economy, organisations need a degree of digital sovereignty suited to their level of regulation and the criticality of their operations,” Patel told TOI.Geopolitical developments and regulatory requirements have heightened concerns over data sovereignty, particularly among organisations in regulated sectors such as banking. Companies increasingly want clarity on where their data resides, who controls encryption keys, where the control plane is located, and whether compliance can be demonstrated continuously.IBM’s Sovereign Core, announced in March, is designed to address these concerns. The software stack can be deployed in a client- or partner-owned data centre, providing cloud-like capabilities while keeping control-plane operations and key management within the customer’s jurisdiction.Built on Sovereign Core, IBM Bharat Core is an AI stack optimised for India, offering reusable Indic AI services, models and connectors across industries. It is benchmarked for quality and scale in Indian scenarios and guides users through the AI lifecycle by recommending suitable building blocks and infrastructure tailored to India’s requirements. IBM is also developing India-specific tools to accelerate Sovereign Core implementation, while its Svaiam reference architecture is designed to help deploy sovereign AI capabilities within govt environments.The shift towards greater control over technology infrastructure is also supporting India’s data centre growth. Patel identified two drivers: companies building capacity in India to support global operations, and Indian enterprises investing in infrastructure they can control themselves. For IBM, the opportunity spans hardware, sovereign infrastructure software and tools to monitor assets and improve data centre efficiency.IBM is also applying AI internally to improve productivity. Patel said the company initially targeted $2 billion in savings over three years but achieved $4.5 billion in operational savings by the end of last year through automation, simplification, process redesign and AI. Its AI coding agent, Bob, is being used by about 80,000 engineers, with productivity gains of 45%, including among client teams, he said.IBM’s business has shifted towards higher-value software, hardware and consulting following the 2021 spin-off of its infrastructure services business, Kyndryl. IBM India’s consolidated revenue from operations rose 7.7% year-on-year to Rs 32,804 crore in FY25, compared with Rs 30,459 crore in FY24, according to MCA data sourced from data intelligence platform Tofler. Net profit increased 41.8% to Rs 3,968 crore in FY25 from Rs 2,798 crore in the previous financial year.Commenting on the US suspension of PERM processing, a step towards employment-based permanent residency, Patel said IBM was not among the companies named in the announcements and that he did not have details of its filings.“If the US becomes more restrictive on permanent residency, I think that could be good for India. It gives India an opportunity to strengthen its talent base,” he said, adding that PERM and H-1B visas should not be conflated.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.