From Scaling Aadhaar to Architecting India’s AI Future: Vivek Raghavan Named to TIME100 AI 2026
For over a decade, Vivek Raghavan operated behind the scenes on a project that would fundamentally alter the lives of more than a billion people: Aadhaar. Today, the IIT Delhi alumnus is back at the forefront of a technological revolution, having been officially named to the prestigious TIME100 AI 2026 list, which honors the most influential figures shaping the trajectory of artificial intelligence worldwide.
A Legacy of Large-Scale Engineering
Raghavan’s inclusion in the TIME100 AI list is a testament to a career defined by massive scale. Before his foray into generative AI, he served as the Chief Project Manager and Biometric Architect for Aadhaar, India’s digital identity infrastructure. His role involved orchestrating technology capable of handling unprecedented volumes of data while utilizing early AI applications to enhance service delivery and curb identity fraud.
An electrical engineering graduate from IIT Delhi, Raghavan later earned his MS and PhD from Carnegie Mellon University. His early career in electronic design automation and private sector entrepreneurship provided the foundation for the unique, “population-scale” engineering approach he brought to the Aadhaar project.
The Mission: AI Sovereignty for India
In 2023, Raghavan co-founded Sarvam AI alongside Pratyush Kumar, building on their collaborative work at IIT Madras’s AI4Bharat initiative. Their goal is as ambitious as it is essential: to develop a homegrown AI technology stack that accounts for India’s immense linguistic diversity, rather than relying on systems optimized for Western markets.
Raghavan has been a vocal advocate for technological independence. He has cautioned against the risk of India becoming a mere consumer of foreign AI tools, famously arguing that the nation must avoid a cycle of “exporting our data and importing intelligence.”
Bridging the Linguistic Divide
Unlike standard large language models often built primarily for English, Sarvam AI is tackling the complex task of serving a nation with 22 officially recognized languages and hundreds of dialects. The startup is developing open-weight models that excel in reasoning, coding, and mathematics, while also creating vision-language technologies designed to process documents across diverse Indian scripts.
This mission has resonated strongly with global tech leaders. In August 2026, the company secured a significant vote of confidence when Nvidia joined as a strategic investor during its Series B funding round.
A Blueprint for Future Engineers
Raghavan’s trajectory offers a profound lesson for the next generation of technologists: the defining challenge of one’s career may not even exist at the time of graduation. When he walked out of the halls of IIT Delhi, neither Aadhaar nor modern generative AI had taken shape.
By applying rigorous engineering principles to the massive, real-world problems facing India, Raghavan has successfully navigated two of the most significant digital transformations in the country’s history. From building the identity of a nation to teaching machines how to speak its languages, Vivek Raghavan’s work continues to reshape the digital landscape of India.
