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An AWS executive criticized Nandan Nilekani and Narayana Murthy’s approach to artificial intelligence, saying India needs more leaders like former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka.
News18
The future of artificial intelligence in India has become the focus of heated debate after an Amazon Web Services executive publicly criticized the views of Infosys founders Nandan Nilekani and Narayana Murthy. His comments have now sparked a larger debate on whether India should focus on building advanced AI technology or continue to use AI primarily to improve services and productivity.
The discussion began after Girish Dilip Patel, CTO – Generative AI at AWS Singapore, shared a strong opinion on
AWS CEO questions current thinking on AI
Patel was reacting to a recent Economic Times opinion piece written by Nandan Nilekani and former Microsoft India chief Ravi Venkatesan. In the article, they argued that India should focus more on using AI broadly across sectors rather than competing with countries like the US and China to build the world’s most advanced AI models.
Nilekani and Venkatesan said India’s strength has always been in adopting technology and extending it to large populations. They pointed to projects like Aadhaar, UPI and India Stack as examples of how India is successfully using technology to solve large-scale problems.
They also explained that building the best AI models requires huge investments, computing power, and talent, areas where countries like the United States and China currently have a significant advantage. According to them, India should instead use existing AI tools to improve healthcare, education, agriculture and public services.
But Patel strongly disagreed with this idea. “Nandan, I love you for what you have done. But your ideas are outdated,” he wrote on X.
“You have the typical mindset of an IT services sales guy. There’s nothing wrong with that. It helped India tremendously in the 1990s and 2000s, but it will take it into a ditch in the rest of the 21st century.”
He also praised Aadhaar while noting that India now needs a different approach to technology leadership.
“India needs more Vishal Sikas, not Nandan Nilekani or Narayan Murthy,” he added.
Nandan, I love you for what you have done. But your ideas are outdated. You have the typical mindset of an IT services sales guy. There’s nothing wrong with that. This helped India greatly in the 1990s and 2000s, but will lead it into a tailspin in the rest of the 21st century.
Thank you for everything… pic.twitter.com/wAIRRCZRNL
— GDPR (@bookwormengr) April 29, 2026
Why did Vishal Sikka enter the discussion?
Patel’s post brought renewed attention to former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, who had earlier pushed the company towards artificial intelligence, automation and platform-based technology.
Sikka became CEO of Infosys in 2014 and was the company’s first non-founder CEO. During his time there, he repeatedly spoke about moving beyond traditional labor-based IT services and preparing for the future of AI-driven technology.
Under his leadership, Infosys has reportedly started focusing more on automation and artificial intelligence products. Sika has often warned that companies that rely solely on workforce-based services could suffer in the long term as technology changes.
However, his tenure also witnessed internal disagreements with Infosys founders over management decisions, executive salaries and corporate governance. In 2017, Sika resigned from the company.
According to Moneycontrol, he wrote in his resignation letter: “It is clear to me that despite our successes over the past three years, and the strong seeds of innovation we have planted, I cannot do my job as CEO and continue to create value, while also constantly defending against relentless, baseless/malicious and increasingly personal attacks.”
Users are divided over the future of AI in India
Patel’s comments quickly sparked mixed reactions online. Some users agreed with him and said that India cannot continue to rely only on low-cost IT services in the era of artificial intelligence.
“There’s a reason there’s a retirement age, whether it’s politics or corporate governance,” one person wrote.
Another said: “If Infosys had invested $1 billion in OpenAI under Vishal Sikka’s leadership, the current value of this investment ($70-80 billion) would be worth more than Infosys’ current market capitalization.”
Others supported Nilekani’s pragmatic approach and claimed that India currently lacks the infrastructure and resources to compete directly with global AI giants. “Nandan’s approach is more practical for the Indian context,” one user commented.
Another person summed up the debate by saying that India now faces a choice between becoming an “AI producing nation” or an “AI adopting nation.”
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