Fireside Chat with Jitendra Pratap Singh Chauhan, Steel Authority of India Limited & Eswar Rao, Bharat Electronics Limited

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Speakers in this video:
Fireside Chat with Jitendra Pratap Singh Chauhan, General Manager – C&IT- ERP, Steel Authority of India Limited & Eswar Rao, Head – Corporate Information Technology, Bharat Electronics Limited

Topic: Building India’s AI Infrastructure: The Race for Compute, GPUs & Next-Generation Data Centers

Moderator: Sayantan Mondal, Senior Correspondent, Express Computer

Key Highlights:
[1] Jitendra Pratap Singh Chauhan, General Manager – C&IT- ERP, Steel Authority of India Limited:
+ Most organisations in India are still at the nascent stage of using AI. But once the actual demand for AI increases, we could find ourselves short of the AI infrastructure we have today.

+ As AI becomes more efficient, the demand for it doesn’t necessarily decrease. Better chips and GPUs at lower costs can actually drive greater adoption — and that means our infrastructure may struggle to keep pace with demand.

+ Technological progress can bring down the marginal cost, but as the cost of AI comes down, its demand could increase significantly. The real challenge, therefore, will be whether our AI infrastructure can keep pace

[2] Eswar Rao, Head – Corporate Information Technology, Bharat Electronics Limited:
+ We have already started our AI journey, with an Army incubation centre and a dedicated team working on developing products and solutions using AI.

+ In February 2026, we started a Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence at BEL, as part of our broader efforts to build AI capabilities within the defence ecosystem.

+ The Government of India is taking several initiatives to bring automation and AI into defence products and processes, and we are working with all three armed forces to identify how AI can improve their operational and productive capabilities.