Dilip Guha, Sasraya News ★ New Delhi : The India AI Impact Summit 2026 commenced on Monday at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, bringing together an unprecedented coalition of global leaders, policymakers, technology pioneers, and researchers. Widely recognised as the first convening of its scale on artificial intelligence in the Global South, the Summit marks a defining moment in shaping the future of AI through inclusive dialogue and collaboration.
Running from February 16 to 20, the five-day Summit is hosting:
Over 100 government representatives, including more than 20 Heads of State and Government and 60 Ministers and Vice Ministers.
500+ global AI leaders, comprising CEOs, founders, chief technology officers, academicians, researchers, and representatives of philanthropic organisations.
This landmark gathering underscores India’s growing role as a hub for AI innovation and policy leadership, while fostering partnerships that aim to ensure equitable and responsible AI development worldwide.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the India AI Impact Expo at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. He also visited different stalls at the Expo. Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State for Electronics and IT Jitin Prasada were also present on the occasion. The India AI Impact Expo 2026 is being held till 20th February, alongside the India AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam. The Expo will serve as a national demonstration of AI in action, where policy meets practice, innovation meets scale, and technology meets the everyday citizen.
The inaugural day of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 brought together global policymakers, multilateral institutions, technology leaders, innovators and industry representatives, setting the stage for India’s ambitious vision to shape the future of artificial intelligence for both domestic and global benefit.
From responsible governance to mass skilling and digital sovereignty, the Day 1 deliberations reflected a coordinated push to transition from policy frameworks to institutional design and scalable infrastructure planning. The discussions reinforced India’s positioning not merely as a technology consumer but also as a creator of responsible, economically transformative AI solutions.
About the India AI Impact Summit
The India AI Impact Summit is a premier platform for advancing global cooperation on artificial intelligence. It convenes leaders from government, industry, academia, and civil society to deliberate on the transformative potential of AI, address challenges, and chart pathways for inclusive growth.
About the India AI Impact Expo
Spread across 10 arenas covering more than 70 thousand square metres, the Expo has brought together global technology firms, startups, academia and research institutions, Union Ministries, State Governments, and international partners. The Expo also features 13 country pavilions, showcasing international collaboration in the AI ecosystem. These include pavilions from Australia, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, Estonia, Tajikistan and Africa.
The Expo is hosting over 300 curated exhibition pavilions and live demonstrations, structured across three thematic chakras – People, Planet and Progress. The Expo is featuring over 600 high-potential startups, many of them building globally relevant and population-scale solutions. These startups will demonstrate working solutions that are already deployed in real-world settings.
As the India AI Impact Summit, India stands at the forefront of efforts to shape a people-first, democratic AI future. This is reflected in the Summit’s theme, ‘Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya’ as well.
By placing public good, accessibility, and global cooperation at the heart of AI’s evolution, India seeks to connect the technological strengths of the Global North with the scale and potential of the Global South, driving inclusive and shared progress worldwide.
As Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji had said during the AI Action Summit in Paris last year, “Some people worry about machines becoming superior in intelligence to humans. But no one holds the key to our collective future and shared destiny other than us humans.” Thus, AI must remain human-centric and guided by responsibility.
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Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is scheduled to deliver the inaugural address on February 19, outlining India’s vision for inclusive and responsible artificial intelligence and setting the direction for enhanced global cooperation.
AI For India And The World
Addressing the Summit, Shri Jitin Prasada, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology and Commerce and Industry, affirmed India’s global outlook on artificial intelligence. He said, “It’s AI not only for India, but for the whole world. India will be that service provider for the whole world. We have to contribute to the developing world as well as the Global South in development.”
His remarks underscored India’s intention to play a leadership role in shaping inclusive AI pathways, particularly for emerging economies and the Global South.
Hardware Rooted Sovereignty And Affordable Compute
In a session titled Hardware Rooted Sovereignty Verifiable Safe and Trusted AI Infrastructure for the Global South, Shri S Krishna, Secretary, MeitY, outlined India’s infrastructure strategy. He said the government has encouraged private sector investment in data centres and AI compute infrastructure, while choosing to subsidise access rather than directly fund hardware creation.
A major highlight of the Summit is the culmination of three flagship Global Impact Challenges titled AI for ALL, AI by HER and YUVAi. Designed to promote inclusive, responsible and development-oriented artificial intelligence, the challenges were launched to accelerate scalable and high-impact AI solutions aligned with national priorities and global development objectives.
The Summit aims to deliberate on the transformative role of AI in advancing inclusive economic growth, strengthening public systems and enabling sustainable development. It seeks to position India as a key platform for shaping the global AI agenda while fostering collaboration across governments, industry, academia and multilateral institutions.
The three challenges collectively attracted more than 4,650 applications from over 60 countries, reflecting robust international participation. After a rigorous multi-stage evaluation process led by domain experts, policymakers and industry leaders, the top 70 teams across the three categories have been selected as finalists. These teams are presenting their innovations during the Grand Finale and Awards Felicitation Ceremony being held on February 16 and 17 at Bharat Mandapam and Sushma Swaraj Bhawan in New Delhi. Finalists are engaging with policymakers, industry leaders, investors and academia, receiving ecosystem support to scale their solutions nationally and globally.
The Research Symposium on AI and Its Impact, scheduled for February 18 in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, serves as the principal academic platform of the Summit. The Symposium has received around 250 research submissions from Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is being graced by H E Mr Alar Karis, President of the Republic of Estonia, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, and Shri Jitin Prasada, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology.
The Symposium brings together globally recognised AI pioneers and leading research institutions to deliberate on AI-driven scientific discovery, safety and governance frameworks, equitable access to computing infrastructure and collaborative research models across the Global South.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is anchored in the conceptual framework of the Seven Chakras and the Three Sutras of People, Planet and Progress. It advances a development-oriented approach to artificial intelligence, linking policy dialogue with practical implementation pathways.
Seven thematic working groups are driving the Summit’s deliberations, covering AI for Economic Growth and Social Good, Democratisation of AI Resources, Inclusion for Social Empowerment, Safe and Trusted AI, Human Capital, Science, and Resilience Innovation and Efficiency. These groups are expected to present outcome-oriented recommendations aimed at strengthening global partnerships and scaling responsible AI deployment.
By integrating innovation with public purpose and aligning technological advancement with inclusive growth, the Summit marks a transition from dialogue to delivery. It positions India as both convenor and partner in global AI cooperation, supporting shared standards, collaborative frameworks and scalable solutions for public good, while reinforcing its commitment to responsible, inclusive and development-focused AI pathways.
*News from sources
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