Analysis

India must build the electro-intelligence stack

K Yatish Rajawat

September 11, 2025 | 8 Min Read

Even as India turns its focus to the AI race, there's a growing opportunity to build for the electric stack—augmenting physical technologies like motors, pumps, and heat pumps with intelligence that makes them more efficient and responsive.

Key Takeaways

India's focus should be on building AI stacks for physical products, such as the electric stack: electric motors, drives, pumps, heat pumps, batteries, and robotics
Integrating electric motors with AI-embedded controls can cut total global electricity demand by around 10%
India cannot outspend China, but it can strategically localise in areas such as agricultural pumps, IE3/IE4 automation for industry, and traction systems for two-wheelers and buses.
Pilot projects to install efficient pumps in Karnataka and Maharashtra have delivered energy savings of 6.1 million kWh across ~2,209 pumps

India faces a crossroads between two futures, neither of which is mutually exclusive. The spectacular hype surrounding AI—computational arms races powered by expensive GPUs—is garnering all the attention and hype capital, as well as policy attention.

The AI space is not well-suited for India’s startup and entrepreneurial energy due to data and capital constraints. The other choice lies in building AI stacks for physical products, such as the electric stack: the physical technologies that power real economies—electric motors, drives, pumps, heat pumps, batteries, and robotics—all augmented by intelligence. This is the next industrial frontier, and India can lead.

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