AI dream of Rs 25 thousand crore or scam! What is this that is creating political turmoil in UP?

The government’s big initiative regarding AI in Uttar Pradesh has now turned into a political fight. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath shared the information about signing of MoU worth Rs 25 thousand crore with Puch AI on Now the opposition has raised questions on the government regarding just one year old Bengaluru based startup company Puch AI. The purpose of the agreement is to make Uttar Pradesh an AI centric destination, but controversy has started with its announcement.

What is Puch AI and what does it do?

Puch AI is a one-year-old AI startup founded in 2025 by Siddharth Bhatia and Arijit Jain. This company mainly works through WhatsApp. Users can ask questions by sending text or voice notes in any Indian language and Puch AI responds through voice notes in the same language.

Features of Puch AI
The company can do many things simultaneously. If you ask what events are going on in Goa, it gives you immediate information. It also shows options from different sites when you ask to find sunscreen under Rs 500. To know the truth of any forward message received on WhatsApp, you can also ask this AI, which immediately checks the fact and tells whether the information is true or fake. If you say you want to eat pizza, tell me where to go, it also suggests local options.

Features like multi-language support, image generation, video generation, voice assistant and fact check are available in Puch AI.

Purpose of agreement with the government

The objective of this non-binding MoU with the government is to make the state an AI centric destination by setting up AI parks, large data center infrastructure, AI Commons and AI universities in Uttar Pradesh.

Yogi Adityanath’s reply on the controversy

Samajwadi Party has raised questions on the credibility of the MoU by posting on X. As the controversy escalated, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath clarified that this MoU is at the initial stage and it has been signed by Invest UP to investigate the possibilities. He told that MoU is not binding. According to the government, if an investor fails to fulfill the stipulated conditions then the MoU will automatically terminate.