India can be the great link joining the largest population of developers to AI’s immense possibilities

Since the dawn of the computer revolution in the 1970s, software developers have established themselves as the architects of technological innovation, building digital solutions that drive economic and human progress in every country on the planet. India is now forecasted to be the fastest-growing G20 economy, and its digital economy contributes over 13% to the economy as a whole annually.

It's clear that where developers are, economic growth follows - and, very soon, India will follow no other. By 2027, India is slated to overtake the US as the largest software developer community on Earth. Although this figure alone signals a hopeful spring of economic opportunity, the possibilities go even further.

As evidenced by widespread adoption of generative AI tools, AI has begun to rapidly refound software development, fuelling up to 55% gains in developer productivity. By 2030, developer AI tools alone are expected to boost global GDP by $1.5 tn.

As India's developer community burgeons, and AI fuels Industrial Revolution-like productivity gains, the country stands at the nexus of a great convergence between the world's largest population of developers, and the newfound possibility of AI. If enabled, this great convergence will drive unprecedented digital transformation for the people of India, generating a consequential economic boom that could be felt around the world for generations to come.

Here's how India can enable this great convergence into continuity:

Launch early education efforts, skilling Indian developers in natural language programming: For far too long, learning how to build software has been dependent on a basic understanding of English, as that language is the syntax base for most modern programming languages.

But, now, AI has struck a new fusion between human and machine languages. This can empower every child in India to start programming in their own, vernacular language they're most fluent in before they've even studied English at school. Whether it be in Hindi, Bengali or Marathi, Indian developers will interpret and build with code - an incredibly complex abstraction layer - in natural language.

New Education Policy (NEP) of 2020 already initiates a mandate for coding classes for students from Class 6 onwards. Now, in Class 6, and even earlier, students can learn how to code with an AI assistant, all in natural language, as if they had their own calculator for computer programming. This will help India seed a prolonged groundswell of developers that will sustain its lead as the largest developer community on the planet.

More importantly, Indian students can stream their creativity into code without first learning English, boosting early interest in STEM careers to every child, no matter what their social background is.

Empower open source to build AI innovations: AI will soon produce a new wave of global tech multinationals, just as the internet birthed the rise of companies like Amazon and Airbnb, which have now intrinsically changed the fabric of sectors like ecommerce and global travel.

This next generation of AI startups or innovations will be built and launched by open source developers in India - if they are enabled to collaborate openly and freely. Already, developers in India are the second-largest contributors to open source AI projects on GitHub.

What's more, open source communities are leveraging AI developer tools to build digital solutions that are helping save lives, such as the Open Healthcare Network in India. GoI should encourage domestic innovation through research funding and regulatory clarity across the open source community.

By giving Indian open source developers the resources and daylight they need to build creatively, India will foster AI innovation from the roots. This could both save lives and drive economic activity for generations to come.

Enable enterprise-wide adoption of AI developer tools: Whether you are a healthcare provider, an established banking institution or a local produce stand, every company is a software company. And, as such, every company is dependent on the software built and maintained by developers.

When software developers are building 55% faster organisation-wide, Indian enterprises will ship software faster than their global competitors, creating a competitive advantage for the nation at large. Organisations, such as Infosys, are well ahead on this journey, accelerating their speed of code with AI assistance.

As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated recently, 'We've moved from talking about AI to applying AI - at scale.' Just as with the adoption of the cloud, organisations that are early AI adopters will exist in another spectrum of economic growth entirely.

Mohandas Gandhi once said, 'The future depends on what you do today.' By enabling this great convergence between the software economy and emerging AI economy, India will not only cement itself as the global leader in the age of AI but will also extend the economic opportunity of building software to all its people.