India, Oct. 31 -- Last week, Venkatesh Hariharan (Venky, as everyone knows him), India representative for the Open Innovation Network, and I ran into each other at a book launch. The book is on the ideas that have shaped India. With the benefit of hindsight, this was the perfect place to bump into Venky because the book traces India's arc from 1870. We later sat down to discuss his most recent paper, which is part of a freely available book, 'Strategic Priorities for India'.

Venky's chapter includes the stories of how India ran short of grain at one point and fuel at another. He dips into these histories to make the point that India must be self-sufficient in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) as well.

For more perspective, in ...