Indian States Rush To Appoint AI Ministers — Will They Make a Difference?

Kerala became the first state to introduce a dedicated AI portfolio at the Cabinet level on May 20, and Tamil Nadu quickly followed suit. A report by Moneycontrol questions whether these efforts will amount to anything, as there is no doubt that other states will follow the same trend.

In Kerala, PK Kunhalikutty of the IUML party was appointed as the AI minister on 20 May. Seeram Sambasive, Special Secretary for IT, said the state is strengthening its IT Mission with two new verticals, AI and emerging technology, and renaming its Electronics and IT department to the IT, Future Technologies Startups department.

Tamil Nadu's move was faster and followed a day after, on 21 May. TVK's Velachery MLA R Kumar was allotted AI and Digital Services, a portfolio the party has promised in its election manifesto.

While Karnataka and Maharashtra have taken a different path altogether. Karnataka's Home and IT Minister Priyank Kharge told Moneycontrol the state prefers a broader technology portfolio.

"If tomorrow AI becomes redundant, do we need to change the ministry again? A simple 'Technology' ministry is better," he said.

Maharashtra approved a new Department of Electronics, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence in April, alongside a dedicated AI policy focused on infrastructure, skilling and employment.

Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, is pursuing a centralised AI strategy built around its swadeshi AI stack developed by IBM, positioning Visakhapatnam as its global AI and data hub. Telangana is taking an ecosystem-led approach anchored in Hyderabad's startup base through institutions like T-Hub and We-Hub.

However, India still does not have a standalone AI Ministry at the central level. The AI policy currently sits under the Ministry of Electronics and IT under Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, with ₹10,372 crore of the IndianAI Mission as the primary federal instrument.

What does the Expert Say?

The appointment of the AI ministers in Kerala and Tamil Nadu is, at its core, a political signal, but a signal without an institutional backing has a poor track record in Indian governance.

Mohandas Pai, former CFO of Infosys and chairman of Aarin Capital, explained that such an initiative needs to be supported by big budgets, investment in innovations and incentives to make a difference. "... states had a Minister for IT, but none of them created a large enough budget to make a big impact," Pai said in the report.

Umakant Soni, Co-Founder of Bharat1.AI, warned that finding knowledgeable AI experts to run these ministries will be the harder problem. "Usually, ministers and bureaucrats who have a poor understanding of the technology might end up unintentionally killing or distorting the very sector they are trying to grow," he told Moneycontrol.

In the same report, Kiruba Shankar, CEO of Business Blogging and founder-director of F5ive Technologies, highlighted the tension precisely. "It is important because AI will transform governance and jobs. But it can also become symbolic, like a 'Minister of Internet' a few years ago," he said, warning that without domain expertise, such portfolios risk becoming cosmetic.

However, not everyone is sceptical. Kri Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and Chairman of seed fund Axilor Ventures, backed the idea. "We need policies to promote and regulate AI so that it creates an equitable and inclusive society. A large number of people need to be trained and retrained for AI, an AI minister will coordinate all these changes," he pointed out in the Moneycontrol report.

Globally, AI governance is becoming standard. The UAE was the first to appoint an AI minister back in 2017. The UK created a dedicated AI minister in 2023. Canada and Albania also expanded their cabinets in 2025, with Albania going as far as appointing a virtual assistant named Diella as Minister of State for AI.

In this context, the state-level effort appears to fill a vacuum, but these appointments will follow a substantive path that will depend on the budgets, bureaucratic capacity, and political will.