India, Oct. 8 -- Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma yesterday said that he is "uncomforted" by India not effectively leveraging opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI) at scale.

"We are underestimating the power of AI. Startups in the Bay Area (US) are raising billions of dollars and we, back home, are not bothered about it. I'm uncomforted by the fact that our country is not playing the opportunity of AI at a scale we need to play," said Sharma during a fireside chat at the Global Fintech Fest 2025.

Noting that India has long relied on systems made in the US throughout its technological evolution, he called for trimming this dependence and building a homegrown "operating system" (OS) for the AI age.

Sharma also said that...