Umakant Soni, the chief executive of Bharat1.AI, warns that India's ambition to reach a $30 trillion economy by 2047 is contingent on developing a strong domestic artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem within the next three to five years. Without this, he predicts that India's economy could stagnate at $8 trillion, falling short of its potential. Soni's company, based in Bengaluru, is working to create a humanity-centric AI ecosystem, partnering with industry leaders like Nvidia. The initiative aims to unify India's 17 million developers under a common framework to foster innovation and growth. Soni emphasizes the need for a distinct Indian approach to AI that considers the country's diverse languages and cultural contexts, arguing against replicating models from the US or China. He believes that India can leverage its demographic dividend and digital infrastructure, such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), to build a competitive AI landscape. However, he cautions that without a coordinated strategy, India risks becoming a passive consumer of foreign AI technologies, potentially losing its competitive edge.