India needs to invest significantly in artificial intelligence: Dr. Anand Deshpande, MD of Persistent Systems

Pune, 2nd February 2026: Currently, there is a wave of artificial intelligence (AI) across the globe, and new opportunities for working in this field of AI are becoming available. Therefore, India needs to make significant investments in this sector in the coming years, opined Dr. Anand Deshpande, Managing Director of Persistent Systems.

Dr. Deshpande was speaking after being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP) for his significant contribution to the information technology sector. The award was presented by Indian computer scientist and educationist Padma Shri Prof. D. B. Pathak.

Persistent Systems founder Dada Deshpande, SEAP President Shivraj Sable, Vice President Shivesh Vishwanathan, Secretary Vidyadhar Purandare, Treasurer Anand Ranade, along with former SEAP presidents Vinita Gera, Abhijit Atre, Nitin Deshpande, and Ashutosh Parasnis were present on the occasion. Also, various individuals and organizations working in the information technology sector were honored with SEAP Star Awards during the program held at the Westin Hotel in Koregaon Park, Pune.

The organizations honored included ‘Allvue Systems’ in the Operational Excellence category, ‘Xoriant’ and ‘Icertis’ in the Making a Difference in People Practices category, ‘Opus’ in the Best ESG Practices category, and ‘Evolent’ in the Best Technology and Innovation Practices category. Bela Kher and Deepthi Devarakonda were honored in the Exemplary Women Leader category, while Bhushan Saler and Abhijeet Zilpelwar were honored in the Tech Role Model category by SEAP.

Over the past 25 years, the information technology sector has undergone many changes. It is making significant progress day by day. Dr. Deshpande opined that India’s progress in this field is also commendable. While discussing the changes in mobile technology and email, he elaborated on the progress made in software.

He stated that the first wave in IT was about connectivity, the second wave was about platforms and various systems. The current wave is that of consumer-facing artificial intelligence with Gen AI use cases in enterprises being the next big opportunity for the Indian IT sector. He also mentioned that the platform for artificial intelligence is vast, and there is no shortage of jobs in this field.

“India is making excellent progress in the IT sector. If the country invests more in the field of artificial intelligence, considering the future, it can certainly benefit the country’s progress. The current wave of AI will last for a long time, thus creating many new job opportunities. Industries can greatly benefit from this technology. Therefore, we need to take advantage of these new opportunities,” said Dr. Deshpande.

Expressing his joy, Dr. Deshpande said that he was receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award for the first time, and receiving it from a family like SEAP made him even more grateful.

Padma Shri Prof. D. B. Pathak said that Dr. Anand Deshpande’s work in the IT sector has added to Pune’s reputation. Chaitanya Rathi compered the program.