For decades, a country's strength rested on its ability to feed its people, but now that focus has shifted toward digital power. This is a new test.
On 21 May, Dilip Asbe and Sridhar Vembu met to explain why India must build its own digital base layers to stay safe.
Dilip Asbe runs the NPCI. He says that relying on foreign cloud providers makes a nation weak when global politics turn sour and critical supply chains finally break down.
Vembu is the co-founder of Zoho and he currently manages 18 data centers to keep his user data safe and private from others.
He argues that writing software is not enough if you do not own the physical servers that sit beneath the digital code.
"If you do not control the full stack, you cannot really guarantee performance or security for your users," he warned.
It is about ownership.
But many firms choose public clouds to save money at the start, yet they often pay a much higher price later on.
Data shows that moving to self-managed systems can reduce costs by 50% to 70% compared to the rates charged by public clouds.
And these savings are vital for reaching the poor in rural areas where every single rupee counts for the typical local family.
So, India should follow the path of industrial giants like Japan and Germany who build their own specialized factory machines for their use.
They do not just sell lenses; they build the grinding tools that make the glass perfect for the final product.
We must do the same.
Now, the government is setting up AI centers of excellence to help bridge the gap between universities and the tech industry.
This will create high-value jobs in small towns and stop the brain drain from moving to the big cities. Yet true power comes from the ground.
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