\In an era where artificial intelligence is rapidly redefining global power structures, the question is no longer whether nations will adopt AI, but whether they will control it. For India, this challenge is both urgent and transformative. At the forefront of this shift stands Alok Kumar, Founder and CEO of Thore Network Pvt Ltd, a deep-tech organisation dedicated to building indigenous AI infrastructure that enables India to compete, create, and lead in the AI-first global economy.
Alok Kumar’s journey is deeply rooted in conviction rather than convenience. A first-generation entrepreneur from a modest background, his belief that technology must serve national capability pushed him toward entrepreneurship at an early age. Beginning his professional life as a market analyst, Alok gradually recognised a structural gap in India’s technology landscape. While global economies were investing heavily in compute infrastructure, language models, and AI platforms, India risked becoming a consumer rather than a creator. This realisation became the foundation of Thore Network.
Founded in 2018 and evolving aggressively after 2023 in alignment with India-AI initiatives, Thore Network was envisioned not as a typical startup, but as a long-term infrastructure mission. Headquartered in Kolkata, the organisation operates with a clear purpose—to build AI systems that are indigenous, accessible, and scalable across government, enterprise, and grassroots innovation ecosystems.
At its core, Thore Network focuses on solving India’s most critical AI bottleneck: affordable and sovereign compute access. AI innovation cannot exist without computational power, yet high-cost GPU infrastructure has historically restricted innovation to a privileged few. Thore Network addresses this gap through a Government-aligned GPU Voucher Marketplace that democratises compute access for startups, researchers, and enterprises. This single intervention has the potential to reshape how AI innovation scales across the country.
Beyond compute, Thore Network’s work spans multiple high-impact platforms. BhashaSetu, its multilingual Indic LLM ecosystem, addresses one of India’s most defining challenges—language diversity. By enabling AI systems to understand and operate across Indian languages, Thore Network is ensuring that AI adoption is inclusive rather than elitist. Platforms like MaargAI, focused on road-safety intelligence, and Insights.ai, an AI-powered knowledge discovery engine, demonstrate how infrastructure can translate into real-world impact.
What sets Thore Network apart is its systems-thinking approach. Rather than building isolated products, Alok Kumar has designed an asset-light yet high-impact innovation model that integrates policy, infrastructure, and technology. The organisation actively participates in national programmes such as IndiaAI, AI Kosh, AIGR, PRIP Pharma-MedTech, and NCIIPC, positioning itself as a strategic contributor to India’s AI governance and security framework.
The entrepreneurial journey, however, was far from easy. Starting without capital backing, elite networks, or institutional privilege required resilience and discipline. Navigating regulatory complexity, rapid technology cycles, and talent shortages shaped Alok’s leadership philosophy—execution matters more than ideas, and speed is the new currency in AI. Every resource deployed had to justify its impact, reinforcing a culture of efficiency and accountability.
Recognition followed persistence. Alok Kumar’s work has earned accolades such as the National Icon Award 2024 and Entrepreneur of the Year (Tech & AI) 2025 at the regional level. Yet, for him, awards remain secondary to impact. Success is measured by how many innovators gain compute access, how many Indian languages are enabled through AI, and how much foreign dependency is reduced.
Looking ahead, Thore Network is building toward a bold vision—becoming India’s first AI-infrastructure unicorn, with IPO readiness targeted for 2026–27. The roadmap includes scaling compute infrastructure, expanding Indic AI models, and powering intelligence systems for over a billion users. It is a vision grounded not in ambition alone, but in preparation.
Thore Network is not merely a company; it is an institutional effort to ensure India’s digital sovereignty. Through Alok Kumar’s leadership, the organisation continues to prove that when infrastructure, policy, and purpose align, nations don’t just adopt technology—they shape the future.
Website – http://www.thorenetwork.com/
