Building a Business Case for a PSU CFO

The investment committee had twelve minutes. The CIO opened with a world-map of foundation models. The CFO asked three questions: which cost centre, which cycle time, and what happens if the vendor trains on our files. The world-map did not answer. The item was deferred. Deferral is how PSU AI dies without anyone saying no.

This template is for CIOs who have to put an agent in front of a CPSE CFO and an investment or IT steering committee. It is a one-page shape plus the annexures the file will demand. It is not a promise of IRR. Public-sector discount rates, DPE capital-budget rituals and your own delegation of powers will rewrite any spreadsheet we could print here.

Do not put a headcount cut on this paper. The companion note on unions explains why. The CFO also knows that a manpower saving you cannot take to the board without IR is not a saving. Put time, overtime, penalty risk, and the cost of a reconstructable file.

Not financial advice. Your finance manual wins.

The one page

Line 1 — Need: a named workflow (invoice exceptions, CSR pack, SOP retrieval), not 'AI capability'. Line 2 — Baseline: how many hours, how many late filings, how many paras last year. Line 3 — Intervention: retrieval and draft, human signs, where it runs. Line 4 — Cost: licence or subscription, hardware, AMS hours, internal staff, sovereignty premium if isolation is required, contingency. Line 5 — Cost centre and the DFPR or delegation serial that can approve it. Line 6 — Benefits you can measure in two quarters without IR. Line 7 — Risks: vendor lock, data gift, OT breach, vigilance stall. Line 8 — Stop rule: what you will turn off if the metric does not move.

If any line is an adjective, the CFO will stop reading at that line.

Benefits a CPSE CFO can defend, and benefits they will send back.

Benefit class	Put on the page	Leave off the AI paper
Time	Hours to assemble a pack; days of closing overtime	'Productivity 10x'
Risk	Missed statutory date; unreconstructable para	'Innovation leadership'
Money	Avoided penalty; avoided duplicate licence; avoided rework	Unilateral headcount cut
Control	Packets the CAG party can open	'AI-first maharatna' branding

Sovereignty as a line item, not a vibe

If the workflow is public, a hosted India-region tool may be cheaper and defensible. If the workflow is payment-adjacent, plant-sensitive or board-sensitive, isolation has a cost: hardware, staff, slower updates. Put that cost on the page as a choice. The companion essay on quantifying sovereignty is the method. Do not hide the premium inside 'platform'.

The CFO can choose a cheaper path if they also accept the transfer risk. They cannot choose what you do not show.

The annexures the file will grow

Procurement path (GeM, IREPS, advertised, rate contract). Vigilance one-pager. Classification. Union sentence. SI RACI if the estate is SAP-heavy. A two-quarter measurement plan with an owner who is not the vendor. These are not decorations. They are how the one page survives the next desk.

Stop rules and phase gates

Pilot funding is not production funding. Write the metric that promotes the pilot, and the date you will kill it. CFOs remember stop rules when they have been burned by a perpetual 'POC' that became an AMC.

Do not promise ministry-level savings. Promise a unit-level cycle you will instrument. Scale is a later paper with a later cost centre.

Objections you will hear — and what to do with them

These are the lines that stall the file. Answer them in the room, then put the answer in the note. A spoken answer without paper will be forgotten by the next officer.

The board wants a transformation story.

Give them a one-paragraph story after the one-page numbers. Do not replace the numbers. Boards forgive dull numbers. They do not forgive an unfunded banner.

We cannot baseline because the process is chaos.

Then the first spend is measurement, not a model. A week of timesheets on the pack is cheaper than a three-year AMC on a guess.

Sovereignty is a ministry mandate, so the premium is irrelevant.

Still show it. Mandates without numbers become unlimited vendor invoices. The CFO still has a cash calendar.

The vendor will write the business case.

They may draft. You initial the baseline and the stop rule. A vendor-written NPV is a sales artefact. The CVO can read.

A four-week case-building playbook

If you cannot finish week one, you do not have a use case. You have a slogan.

1. Week 1: pick one workflow. Measure last quarter's cycle and failures with the user department, not the vendor.
2. Week 2: price isolation versus hosted, AMS hours, and internal staff. Name the cost centre and the approving serial.
3. Week 3: write the vigilance, union and classification sentences. Attach them. Build the stop rule.
4. Week 4: one page plus annexures. Rehearse the twelve-minute version with finance before the committee.

How this shows up in the file

Subject: Investment note — agent for (workflow), cost centre (x), stop rule (date/metric).

Need and baseline are in annexure A. Intervention is retrieval-and-draft on (perimeter). Cost and cost centre are in annexure B. Benefits are cycle time and (risk), not sanctioned-strength change. Risks and the stop rule are in annexure C. Procurement path is (portal).

This note is not financial advice. Delegation of powers applies.

This article is informational field guidance for Indian public sector undertakings and their vendors, not legal, audit, labour, energy-regulatory, banking-regulatory or procurement advice. Confirm the live circular, DPE guideline, CVC instruction, sector regulator text, purchase manual and your counsel before you file it.

How this clears vigilance and the board

A P1 CIO/CTO in a PSU will meet CVC-shaped questions even when there is no special 'AI circular'. “Building a Business Case for a PSU CFO” has to survive a technical committee, a cost centre, and a union conversation if jobs appear threatened.

The PSU CFO funds a measurable cycle, a named risk, and a cost centre. They do not fund a transformation adjective. Build the one-pager they can defend in the investment committee. OT networks stay off-limits. Navratna autonomy speeds buying; it does not waive DPDP or data classification. IREPS is not GeM. RBI-shaped rules still localise payment data.

• Classify data before the POC.
• Keep agents off OT.
• Write the board memo with residual risk.
• Engage unions on retrieval vs replacement.

Close this loop before the next CAB

Put “Building a Business Case for a PSU CFO” on the next change-advisory or bid-opening agenda as a single line item with an owner. If it cannot earn a line item, it will not earn a control. The owner should be a P1 CIO/CTO, not “the vendor.”

Revisit the item when the model, the GeM term, the region, or the SI changes. “PSU business case AI” is not a one-time workshop. It is a watch item. Date the last check. Unsigned watch items are souvenirs.

What must be true before you file this

If “Building a Business Case for a PSU CFO” is only a heading, it will not survive a file inspection. A P1 CIO/CTO should be able to attach one artefact that proves “PSU business case AI”: a log export, a clause, a scored row, a dated notice, or a refusal rule.

Write three dated sentences: what was decided, who owns it, and when it will be re-checked. Unsigned sentences are souvenirs. Dated sentences are controls.

• Name the owner of “PSU business case AI” inside the institution.
• Attach one artefact a stranger can open next year.
• Revisit when the model, the notice, or the SI changes.
• Do not treat a vendor slide as evidence.

One more artefact before you close the file

Add a one-page owner map: who runs this after the vendor leaves, who can stop it, and where the logs live. If those three names are missing, the project is still a demo.

Date the page. File it next to the contract. That is the difference between a blog you read and a control you can audit.

What the next file must contain

“Building a Business Case for a PSU CFO” earns a line in the noting only if a P1 CIO/CTO can attach proof of “PSU business case AI.” A heading is not proof. A vendor slide is not proof. A workshop photograph is not proof.

Write three dated sentences: what was decided, who owns it after the next posting order, and when it will be re-checked. If you cannot write the three sentences, you are not ready to buy, to sell, or to go live.

Leave unsourced percentages out of the note. DPDP is not a blanket localisation statute. The November 2025 AI governance text is guidance, not an Act. CERT-In’s 28 April 2022 directions still set specified incident and log clocks. A PAC, when lawful, lives in GFR Rule 166.

• Name the designation that owns “PSU business case AI.”
• Attach one artefact a stranger can open next year.
• Record the instrument you are actually using.
• Revisit when the model, the SI, the notice or the posting changes.