October 30, 2026, (Inside AI) — India's public sector is emerging as a significant market for AI-assisted software development, according to Sharryn Napier, GitHub's Vice President for Asia Pacific, India and Japan. In an interview at GitHub Universe in San Francisco, Napier said government agencies in India are increasingly interested in using AI to improve citizen services, and she identified the public sector as a key growth area for the Microsoft-owned platform.
Napier's comments come as India accelerates its national AI strategy. The IndiaAI Mission has deployed roughly 38,000 graphics processing units to expand domestic computing capacity, and New Delhi hosted a major AI summit earlier this year that drew global technology executives. India now boasts 32 million developers on GitHub, second only to the United States, with the platform seeing 30 percent year-on-year growth in the country.
GitHub, acquired by Microsoft in 2018 for $7.8 billion, is looking to deepen its presence in India. Napier described the country as its "jewel in the crown" and confirmed that the Indian government is already a GitHub customer. However, she acknowledged that public sector adoption of AI remains in an early phase.
"I think the market, particularly in the public sector, is still maturing. However, we already have some substantial customers in the public sector," Sharryn Napier, Vice President for Asia Pacific, India and Japan at GitHub, said.
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The push into government aligns with a broader global trend. Governments worldwide are deploying AI for chatbots, grievance-redressal systems, and administrative efficiency. Napier argued that governments in the Asia Pacific region are setting the pace. "I think governments are leading this conversation, providing support and, rather than educating people, encouraging them to embrace AI because they recognise how transformative the technology can be," she said.
India's AI ambitions extend beyond adoption. The country is pursuing sovereign AI capabilities, including the BharatGen multilingual model and AIKosh, a platform providing startups and researchers access to anonymised training data. These initiatives aim to reduce reliance on foreign systems and position India as an AI powerhouse alongside the US and China.
Yet the path to sovereign AI is not solely about building models. It requires robust data infrastructure, legal frameworks for jurisdiction and storage, and reliable electricity and connectivity. In low-income economies, data quality gaps remain a persistent barrier. India's efforts to address these layers will determine whether its public sector AI adoption moves from pilot projects to scaled services.
Infosys Set The Early Pace
Napier pushed back against the notion that Indian organisations have been slow to adopt AI. She pointed to Infosys as GitHub's first early adopter of Copilot when the AI coding assistant launched in 2023. "Infosys embraced the technology from day one and has benefited from AI. They are now using it extensively in delivering services to their customers because those customers expect them to do so," she said.
The partnership illustrates how Indian global systems integrators (GSIs) are using AI to improve margins and speed. "If a service provider says it will deliver something in six months but can deliver it in three, that's highly valuable to the client. I think these are the kinds of benefits Indian GSIs are seeing," Napier added.
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GitHub's focus extends to startups, which Napier said adopt AI quickly and prioritise rapid product development. But the competitive landscape is shifting. Newer tools such as Cursor and Anthropic's Claude Code are challenging GitHub's early lead in generative AI coding. GitHub's advantage lies in its integration with Microsoft's enterprise and cloud ecosystem, but maintaining that edge will require continuous innovation.
On AI agents, Napier said companies are moving from experimentation to practical application. "When people began experimenting with AI and AI agents, they were exploring what the technology could do. I think they are now starting to apply it in practice. The approach will vary from one organisation to another, depending on where they want to focus, what they want to automate, what tasks can be handled by AI agents, and what still needs to be done by humans," she said.
The Indian government's interest in AI is not merely about efficiency. It is part of a strategic push to build a domestic AI ecosystem that can compete internationally. As Napier noted, governments in the region expect businesses and agencies to step up and take on global players. For GitHub, that means both opportunity and responsibility. The platform's growth in India will depend on how well it serves not just large enterprises and startups, but also the public sector's unique needs for data sovereignty, security, and reliability.
India's developer community is already the second largest in the world. If the government's AI initiatives succeed, it could become a model for other nations seeking to balance adoption with sovereignty. GitHub's bet on India's public sector is a bet on that broader vision.
