Reviewed on 9 October 2026. This is a list of AI research groups in India whose public pages we checked, with what each says it works on and the routes in for students and early-career researchers. It isn't a ranking: "top" depends on your research interests. It also covers how to judge whether a lab suits you, and how to approach one.
Industry research labs
| Lab | Location | What its own page lists | Early-career routes mentioned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Research India | Bengaluru (Lavelle Road) | Research areas: Algorithms; Machine Learning and AI; Systems; Technology and Empowerment | Internships; postdoctoral roles on one- or two-year fixed terms; the Research Fellows programme for recent BS/BE/BTech and MS/ME/MTech graduates |
| IBM Research – India | Bengaluru and Gurgaon | Established in 1998. Areas include trustworthy AI, AI for code, conversational AI, security, hybrid cloud, climate and sustainability, and AI for business automation | Links to open positions in India |
| Google (Bengaluru) | Bengaluru | Google announced an AI research lab in Bengaluru in 2019, called Google Research India | Check Google's current research and careers pages for the team's present form and openings |
Microsoft Research India's 2026 Research Fellows cycle took applications from 7 January to 15 February 2026, and PhD students and PhD holders weren't eligible. Watch the programme page for the next cycle.
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| Group | Host | What its own page says |
|---|---|---|
| AI4Bharat | IIT Madras | A research lab building open-source datasets, tools and models for Indian languages. Its page lists work such as IndicTrans2 (machine translation that the page says covers all 22 Indian languages), IndicWhisper (speech recognition) and the IndicVoices speech dataset |
| Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI | IIT Madras | A research centre for data science and artificial intelligence |
| Department of Computational and Data Sciences | IISc Bengaluru | IISc's department for computational and data sciences |
| IIIT Hyderabad | IIIT Hyderabad | Describes itself as having 25 years of research-led education, with several research centres |
For academic groups, the usual routes are MS (by research) or PhD admission, project or research-assistant posts funded by grants, and summer internships. These are advertised on the institute's own pages. For PhD funding, see the Prime Minister's Research Fellowship rules in our AI research scientist guide.
Applied and public-interest AI
- Wadhwani AI describes itself as a programme of the AI Unit of the Lords Education and Health Society. It works on AI for healthcare, education and agriculture, and has a careers page.
- IndiaAI Mission. A PIB release of 7 March 2024 records Cabinet approval of the IndiaAI Mission, with an outlay of ₹10,371.92 crore. Its pillars include compute infrastructure, foundation models, datasets, and FutureSkills, which aims to increase AI courses at undergraduate, master's and PhD levels.
How to judge whether a lab suits you
Before applying, check five things using the lab's own publications and pages:
- Recent output. What has the group published or released in the last two years? Read two or three papers or open-source releases.
- Fit with your interests. Could you describe, in one sentence, a question you'd want to work on there?
- Routes in at your stage. Internships, fellowships, project posts or degree admission. Check that you meet the stated eligibility.
- Mentorship. Who would supervise you, and how do current students or fellows describe the experience?
- What you leave with. A paper, a released dataset or model, a recommendation letter, or a stronger application for a PhD.
Worked example: a lab-fit scorecard
The two labs below are illustrative, not real organisations. A final-year student interested in speech recognition for Indian languages compares an academic lab (X) and an industry lab (Y), scoring each from 1 to 5:
| Criterion | Weight | Lab X | Lab Y |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fit with research interests | 35% | 5 | 3 |
| Mentorship and structure | 25% | 3 | 4 |
| Recent output and releases | 20% | 4 | 5 |
| Access at your stage | 20% | 3 | 4 |
| Weighted score | 100% | 3.90 | 3.85 |
- Lab X: 5×0.35 + 3×0.25 + 4×0.20 + 3×0.20 = 1.75 + 0.75 + 0.80 + 0.60 = 3.90
- Lab Y: 3×0.35 + 4×0.25 + 5×0.20 + 4×0.20 = 1.05 + 1.00 + 1.00 + 0.80 = 3.85
The scores are almost level, which is useful information in itself: either is a reasonable choice. A deciding question might be which lab's recent papers you could realistically extend in six months.
How to contact a lab
A short, specific email works better than a generic request:
Subject: Prospective research intern: speech recognition for Indian languages
Dear Dr. [Name],
I read your [year] paper on [specific topic] and reproduced its main result
on [dataset], getting [your number] against the reported [their number]. I
then tried [one extension] and found [result]. My code and a two-page
report are at [link].
I would like to apply for [the specific programme or position named on
your page]. Could you tell me whether you are taking interns for [period]?
Thank you,
[Your name], [degree, institution, year]
Mention one specific paper, show something you've actually done, and name the programme you're applying to. Don't send the same email to dozens of labs.
Key takeaways
- Judge labs by their recent work and the routes open at your stage, not by lists of "top" names.
- Industry labs in India offer internships and, in some cases, pre-PhD research roles. Academic groups offer degree routes and project posts.
- A reproduced and extended paper is the strongest introduction you can bring to any of them.