Last Updated:January 21, 2026, 13:34 IST Ashwini Vaishnaw at Davos rejected the IMF chief’s suggestion that India belongs to a second tier of AI economies, saying that India is clearly in the first group globally. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw (Photo: PTI) Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday firmly maintained that India belongs “clearly in the first group” of artificial intelligence (AI) powers, pushing back against any suggestion that the country should be seen as a second-tier player in the global AI ecosystem. Vaishnaw made the remarks while responding to comments by Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, during discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The exchange unfolded during a panel discussion on the global impact of AI, where Georgieva said the world was already witnessing the arrival of AI and that several emerging market economies were showing comparative strength. She named Saudi Arabia among those economies and said India would also be one of them because of the significant bet it …