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Anthropic has sent a message to Bengaluru

February 07, 2026 4 min read Science & Technology Economics GS3 (Science & Technology Industrial Policy)
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What Happened

  • US-based AI company Anthropic (maker of Claude AI) is opening its first India office in Bengaluru in early 2026, its second office in the Asia-Pacific region after Tokyo.
  • Anthropic appointed Irina Ghose — a former Microsoft India Managing Director with over three decades of experience — as Managing Director for India.
  • India ranks as the second-largest market globally for Claude.ai (after the US), with nearly half of all Indian usage concentrated on technical and programming tasks.
  • The company will focus on deploying AI for social impact in education, healthcare, and agriculture, while supporting Indian enterprises, nonprofits, and startups through strategic partnerships.
  • Claude will launch enhanced language performance in Hindi and nearly a dozen additional Indian languages including Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Urdu.

Static Topic Bridges

India as a Global AI Talent and Market Hub

India has emerged as a critical destination for global AI companies due to its combination of a large engineering talent pool, rapidly growing digital consumer base, and government policy support. The entry of Anthropic follows similar expansions by OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta AI, and other frontier AI labs into India.

  • India produces approximately 1.5 million engineering graduates annually, with a significant share specialising in computer science and data science
  • India's AI market is projected to reach $17 billion by 2027, growing at over 25% CAGR
  • Over 3,000 AI startups operate in India as of 2025, with Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and the NCR region as primary hubs
  • OpenAI opened its India office in 2024 with Pragya Misra as its first India hire; Google DeepMind expanded its Bengaluru operations significantly in 2024-25
  • India's IT services sector (employing ~5 million) provides a ready workforce for AI-adjacent roles, with companies like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro investing heavily in AI upskilling

Connection to this news: Anthropic's India entry signals that India is now indispensable in the global AI ecosystem — not just as a market for AI products but as a talent source and development centre for frontier AI models.

FDI in Technology Services — Policy Framework

India's liberalised Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy in the technology sector allows 100% FDI through the automatic route for IT services, data processing, software development, and related activities. This has made India one of the top destinations for technology FDI globally.

  • FDI policy is governed by the Consolidated FDI Policy issued by DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry
  • 100% FDI under automatic route is permitted in IT/BPM services, software development, data processing, and hardware manufacturing
  • India received $71 billion in FDI equity inflows in FY 2023-24; the computer software and hardware sector consistently ranks among the top 3 sectors for FDI inflows
  • Karnataka (Bengaluru) accounts for the largest share of technology FDI inflows among Indian states
  • Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes for IT hardware and electronics complement FDI policy to attract manufacturing alongside design

Connection to this news: Anthropic's entry into India leverages the 100% automatic route FDI regime for technology services, joining a long line of global technology companies that have established significant operations in India under this permissive policy framework.

Multilingual AI and Digital India

The expansion of AI capabilities into Indian languages is significant for India's vision of inclusive digital access. The Digital India programme (launched 2015) and the National Language Translation Mission (Bhashini, launched 2022) aim to bridge the language barrier in digital services.

  • India has 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and hundreds of additional languages and dialects
  • Bhashini (National Language Translation Mission) under MeitY aims to build AI-powered translation tools for real-time translation across Indian languages; it uses the AI4Bharat open-source language models
  • The 2011 Census recorded that only about 10% of Indians speak English; digital inclusion requires multilingual AI
  • IndiaAI Mission includes the IndiaAI Datasets Platform to build high-quality Indian language datasets for training AI models
  • The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasises mother-tongue instruction, creating further demand for multilingual AI tools in education

Connection to this news: Anthropic's announcement of enhanced Hindi and 10+ Indian language support aligns directly with India's Bhashini and Digital India goals, potentially bringing frontier AI capabilities to the 90% of Indians who do not speak English as a primary language.

Key Facts & Data

  • Anthropic's India office: Bengaluru (second Asia-Pacific office after Tokyo)
  • India MD: Irina Ghose (former Microsoft India Managing Director, 24 years at Microsoft)
  • India is the second-largest market for Claude.ai globally (after the US)
  • Nearly 50% of Indian Claude usage is for technical/programming tasks
  • Languages to receive enhanced support: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu
  • India's AI market projection: $17 billion by 2027
  • 3,000+ AI startups in India as of 2025
  • 100% FDI permitted via automatic route in IT services and software development