UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Reimagining sovereign AI for India’s strategic future

Question 1

Under the IndiaAI Mission, which one of the following pillars is the one exclusively tasked with building the subsidised common GPU compute capacity offered to startups and academia at about Rs.65 per GPU-hour?

Accepted Answer

IndiaAI Compute Capacity

Answer

IndiaAI Innovation Centre

Answer

IndiaAI Datasets Platform

Answer

Safe & Trusted AI

Question 2

The 'seven Sutras' that anchor India's principle-based approach to safe and trusted AI were laid down in which one of the following documents?

Accepted Answer

India AI Governance Guidelines, released in November 2025

Answer

National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, 2018

Answer

Principles for Responsible AI, 2021

Answer

Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023

Question 3

Sovereign AI, as conceptualised in India's strategic discourse, is a nation's capacity to develop, host, govern and operationalise AI systems under its own control across how many core components — namely compute, models/algorithms, data, and governance frameworks?

Accepted Answer

Four

Answer

Two

Answer

Three

Answer

Five

Question 4

The IndiaAI Mission — including the provisioning of common compute for training foundation and frontier models — is executed through which one of the following as its implementation agency?

Accepted Answer

IndiaAI, an Independent Business Division under the Digital India Corporation, MeitY

Answer

NITI Aayog

Answer

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)

Answer

National Informatics Centre (NIC)

Question 5

With reference to 'frontier AI models', which one of the following best describes the order of training compute conventionally used to demarcate the most advanced (frontier) class of models?

Accepted Answer

Around ten septillion (10^25) or more floating-point operations

Answer

Around ten billion (10^10) floating-point operations

Answer

Around ten trillion (10^13) floating-point operations

Answer

Around ten quintillion (10^19) floating-point operations

Question 6

In July 2026, the U.S. government action that most directly restricted access to cutting-edge AI capability for foreign nationals involved which one of the following?

Accepted Answer

Directing Anthropic to suspend access to its most advanced Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for foreign nationals on national-security grounds

Answer

Imposing a blanket ban on all cloud-computing exports to India

Answer

Revoking the manufacturing tax credits granted under the CHIPS and Science Act

Answer

Withdrawing from the New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact

Question 7

In the context of global AI-sovereignty strategies, Argentina's offer of a 'regulatory safe harbour' to attract AI investment refers most precisely to which one of the following?

Accepted Answer

A framework that shields AI developers from certain regulatory liabilities or restrictions to encourage them to locate and invest there

Answer

A state-owned data centre reserved only for domestic AI firms

Answer

An exemption on import tariffs applied solely to AI chips

Answer

A prohibition on all foreign AI models in order to protect local firms

Question 8

Which of the following is/are correctly identified as institutional measures or safeguards India has adopted to reduce strategic dependence on foreign AI systems?

Accepted Answer

1, 2 and 3

Answer

1 and 2 only

Answer

2 and 4

Answer

1, 3 and 4

UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Reimagining sovereign AI for India’s strategic future

Q1. Under the IndiaAI Mission, which one of the following pillars is the one exclusively tasked with building the subsidised common GPU compute capacity offered to startups and academia at about Rs.65 per GPU-hour?

Q2. The 'seven Sutras' that anchor India's principle-based approach to safe and trusted AI were laid down in which one of the following documents?

Q3. Sovereign AI, as conceptualised in India's strategic discourse, is a nation's capacity to develop, host, govern and operationalise AI systems under its own control across how many core components — namely compute, models/algorithms, data, and governance frameworks?

Q4. The IndiaAI Mission — including the provisioning of common compute for training foundation and frontier models — is executed through which one of the following as its implementation agency?

Q5. With reference to 'frontier AI models', which one of the following best describes the order of training compute conventionally used to demarcate the most advanced (frontier) class of models?

Q6. In July 2026, the U.S. government action that most directly restricted access to cutting-edge AI capability for foreign nationals involved which one of the following?

Q7. In the context of global AI-sovereignty strategies, Argentina's offer of a 'regulatory safe harbour' to attract AI investment refers most precisely to which one of the following?

Q8. Which of the following is/are correctly identified as institutional measures or safeguards India has adopted to reduce strategic dependence on foreign AI systems?