India AI Impact Summit 2026 highlights: AI policy decisions, industry announcements, and expert insights

India AI Impact Summit 2026: Day 3 of the AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi brings research and real-world application into sharper focus. The Research Symposium convenes leading academics, researchers, and think tanks to present cutting-edge AI research, emerging methodologies, and evidence-based policy insights. In parallel, dedicated Industry Sessions bring together global technology leaders, startups, and sector champions to showcase scalable solutions, live deployments, and future-ready innovations. Coming to the Global South for the first time, the Summit is expected to witness participation from over 100 countries, including 15 to 20 heads of government, over 50 ministers from various countries, and more than 40 CEOs of leading global and Indian companies, such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei as well as Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the official two-day Summit on February 19, and is also likely to address a CEO roundtable. The AI Impact Summit 2026 builds on the AI Action Summit held in Paris and co-chaired by PM Modi last year as well as a smaller meeting in Seoul in 2024 and the inaugural edition held in Britain’s Bletchley Park in 2023. The AI Impact Summit week will feature more than 500 events, alongside the main programme. It also doubles as a trade show of AI products and solutions by more than 840 exhibitors, including national delegations, ministerial groups, tech companies, AI startups, and research labs, making it one of the most comprehensive AI-focused global convenings. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, key announcements, and on-ground reporting from what promises to be an intense few days in the capital. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., outlined how artificial intelligence is accelerating India’s development and driving large-scale change. He announced the India–America Connect Initiative, aimed at strengthening collaboration between the two countries across the technology ecosystem. Pichai also unveiled an ambitious AI skilling programme to help Indian professionals build expertise in artificial intelligence. The courses will be offered in Hindi and English, with additional Indian languages to be added over time. From advancing quantum computing to improving weather prediction, Google plans to support global research through a new dedicated fund. Beyond this, Google is working closely with multiple Indian government bodies. Google DeepMind is collaborating with the Indian government to expand access to AI for citizens, including initiatives to introduce generative AI in schools, underscoring Google’s full-stack commitment to India. Gnani.ai has announced the launch of Vachana STT, a foundational, enterprise-grade Indic speech recognition model trained on over 1 million hours of real-world voice data spanning 1,056 domains. Vachana STT is the first model released under Inya VoiceOS, a sovereign AI model stack being built as part of the India AI Mission. It is designed from first principles to handle India's linguistic diversity, real-world acoustic variability, and production-scale deployment requirements. The model operates reliably in noisy, omnichannel environments and is deployed at national scale, processing approximately 10 million calls per day with a p95 latency of 200 milliseconds. To know more about Gnani.ai and its recent launches, click here. Speaking at the “Governing in the Age of AI: Sovereignty, Impact and Strategy” event, Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer at Meta, called India a “very positive case study” in AI growth. “I think India is a very positive case study, in large part due to the talent pool. There are more consumer AI startups in India than in the United States,” Wang said. He added that he recently met Indian founders and VCs and described the country’s AI ecosystem as a “shining example of incredible development.” > #watch | Delhi: At the 'Governing in the age of AI: Sovereignty, Impact and Strategy' event, Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer of Meta, says, "... I think India is a very positive case study, in large part due to the talent pool. I was at a dinner with a number of Indian founders… pic.twitter.com/TPWGwzR2kO— ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2026 #watch | Delhi: At the 'Governing in the age of AI: Sovereignty, Impact and Strategy' event, Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer of Meta, says, "... I think India is a very positive case study, in large part due to the talent pool. I was at a dinner with a number of Indian founders… pic.twitter.com/TPWGwzR2kO NVIDIA announced it is working with India's largest manufacturers and software companies like Siemens, Cadence, and Synopsys to build AI-powered and software-defined factories. With $134 billion of investment in manufacturing, Indian giants like Reliance New Energy, Havells, L&T Semiconductor, Addverb, and Hero MotoCorp will be using NVIDIA's CUDA-X and Omniverse libraries for things like simulation and product design. OpenAI has announced it will be partnering up with top education institutions like IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad, AIIMS, and others to help more than 100,000 students, faculty and staff to encourage AI education in the country. The ChatGPT maker said it will work on "durable, campus-wide capability, including secure, enterprise-grade ChatGPT Edu access" to embed AI into academic workflows, including but not limited to coding, simulations, analysis and research. OpenAI said it is also working with edtech platforms like HCL GUVI, PhysicsWallah and upGrad to spread AI literacy beyond campuses. At the AI Impact Summit, Microsoft said it was on track to invest $50 billion in countries across the 'Global South' by 2030. Last year, the tech giant announced $17.5 billion in AI investments in India last year, betting on one of the fastest-growing digital markets in the world. For context, the Global South refers to developing, emerging and lower-income countries in the southern hemisphere. Qualcomm Inc. has announced its intention to invest up to $150 million to support India’s rapidly expanding technology and AI startup ecosystem. The investment will be deployed through Qualcomm Ventures and will focus on startups across stages in AI, automotive, IoT, robotics, and mobile. The announcement coincides with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon’s participation in the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. “Through our new Strategic AI Venture Fund, Qualcomm is investing in companies that are advancing the next chapter of AI in India,” said Cristiano Amon, president and CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated. “AI is entering a new phase where intelligence is built directly into devices and systems people depend on every day, from smartphones and PCs to cars, industrial machines, robots, and more, delivering richer and more meaningful experiences. This shift will reshape entire industries, and India’s startup ecosystem has a critical role to play as edge AI drives innovation across sectors.” Amid the ongoing AI Impact Summit, hosted by India at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, Amazon Web Services (AWS) organised a symposium where it announced that it is collaborating with the Indian government to strengthen its generative AI capabilities, with a focus on addressing data residency and security requirements. The tech giant said it is working with India-based cloud computing operator Yotta Data Services to deploy ‘AWS Outposts’ under the National Informatics Centre's (NIC) MeghRaj 2.0 cloud computing initiative. Read more here. Qualcomm showcased its full Robotics System as it accelerates the deployment of physical AI across real-world environments, from household robots to industrial AMRs and full-size humanoids. The company also unveiled its first robotics processor, the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-10, marking its entry into premium-tier robotics. Built on a modular, end-to-end architecture, the system combines heterogeneous edge computing, mixed-criticality AI, software, and an AI data flywheel. Qualcomm said its task-based approach focuses on high-impact use cases across logistics, manufacturing, and retail, aiming to move humanoids from controlled labs into scalable, deployment-ready settings. Mastercard demonstrated its readiness for AI-powered payments in India by completing its first fully authenticated agentic commerce transaction at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi . The transaction, aligned with Mastercard’s Agent Pay Framework, was tokenized and securely authenticated within a large language model environment. Cards issued by Axis Bank and RBL Bank were used across payment aggregators including Cashfree, Juspay, PayU, and Razorpay, and merchants such as Swiggy, Instamart, Vodafone Idea, Tira, and Zepto. Mastercard said the milestone highlights India’s growing role in shaping secure, AI-led commerce across Asia Pacific . “As India positions itself as a global AI powerhouse, the real challenge is not access to AI, but adoption at scale,” said Saurabh Nigam, President and Chief AI Solutions Officer at iStreet Network, at the AI Impact Summit 2026. He noted that enterprises continue to struggle with fragmented data, legacy infrastructure, talent gaps, and security concerns. “Our focus is on helping organizations move from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide impact,” Nigam said, stressing scalable AI frameworks and responsible governance. Nigam added that AI must deliver “measurable ROI” and that successful adoption “requires cultural transformation, not just technology implementation.” Qualcomm, on February 17, unveiled its Robotics System and the Dragonwing IQ-10 processor for humanoids and advanced AMRs at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi. The company said its end-to-end robotics platform integrates hardware, software and compound AI to enable scalable physical AI across domestic and industrial use cases, marking its entry into the premium robotics segment. > Robots that move, react and express, powered by @Qualcomm Dragonwing Robotics suite.From playful to powerful, they show how AI is stepping off screens and into the world around us.📍16–20 February, Booth 4.2, Hall 4, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi#aiforall… pic.twitter.com/PH4czxbMAT— Qualcomm India (@qualcomm_in) February 17, 2026 Robots that move, react and express, powered by @Qualcomm Dragonwing Robotics suite.From playful to powerful, they show how AI is stepping off screens and into the world around us.📍16–20 February, Booth 4.2, Hall 4, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi#aiforall… pic.twitter.com/PH4czxbMAT Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, former Director General of CERT-In and former National Cybersecurity Coordinator of the Government of India, Gulshan Rai, said, “We discussed AI and its various forms. It is a very vast subject. The security of AI applications and their algorithms is becoming increasingly important.” He added, “Monitoring these systems is equally crucial because any breach can impact the AI system, and issues within the AI system can also create wider vulnerabilities. Security, therefore, remains a major concern.” > #watch | Delhi: On India AI Impact Summit 2026, Former Director General CERT-In & Former National Cybersecurity Coordinator, Government of India, Gulshan Rai says, "... We talked about AI and different forms of AI. It is a very wide subject. The security of AI applications and… pic.twitter.com/hcsiwtUhmM— ANI (@ANI) February 17, 2026 #watch | Delhi: On India AI Impact Summit 2026, Former Director General CERT-In & Former National Cybersecurity Coordinator, Government of India, Gulshan Rai says, "... We talked about AI and different forms of AI. It is a very wide subject. The security of AI applications and… pic.twitter.com/hcsiwtUhmM Artificial intelligence is transforming science. At the AI Impact Summit, Google is showcasing the breadth of AI’s potential in scientific discovery. The company’s team is demonstrating AlphaFold 3, an AI model developed by Google DeepMind that predicts the 3D structure and interactions of biological molecules, including proteins, DNA, RNA, and ligands, with unprecedented accuracy. Innovations powered by AI can significantly accelerate research and advance drug discovery. Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled Inya VoiceOS, India’s first 5-billion-parameter voice-to-voice foundational AI model, at the India AI Impact Summit 2026. Gnani.ai co-Founder and CEO Ganesh Gopalan demonstrated the sovereign model, which operates directly in acoustic and semantic space without relying on speech-to-text or text-to-speech pipelines. Trained on 14+ million hours of multilingual speech data and 8+ trillion text tokens, the model supports 15+ Indian languages, delivers sub-second latency, handles code-mixed conversations, and preserves tone, emotion, and intent. It is positioned for government helplines, emergency response systems, and enterprise automation use cases. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw clarified that of the projected $200 billion investment, the majority is expected to go towards infrastructure, while around $17 billion will be directed at deep tech and the application layer. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said age-based regulation has been accepted by many countries and was incorporated into India’s Digital Personal Data Protection framework as a forward-looking step. He added that the government is now in discussions with social media platforms to frame regulations around deepfakes and age-based access restrictions. Vaishnaw also said the government believes there must be a fair distribution of revenue to publishers, noting that several major platforms have shown a willingness to move in that direction. On the semiconductor front, he announced that a research project under the Semicon 2.0 programme will focus on developing high-bandwidth memory chips. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India aims to create an “AI version of UPI”, describing plans to build a bouquet of AI solutions and offer a UPI-like digital public infrastructure that the world can build on. On sovereign AI, he said the concept has multiple connotations, including reducing dependence on other countries and strengthening India’s ability to develop future solutions across the chips and infrastructure layers. Addressing climate concerns, Vaishnaw said India is investing heavily in clean energy, with what he described as the world’s largest clean power facility coming up in the country. He also urged researchers to develop efficient AI solutions that can run on frugal resources. He added that his message to India’s IT sector is clear: focus on reskilling to stay ahead in the AI transition. On Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang not attending the summit, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said it was a personal decision. He added that Huang had reached out to inform them that he would not be able to attend due to unforeseen circumstances. Vaishnaw said Nvidia continues to work with several Indian companies on large investments in infrastructure. He also noted that commitments from other global CEOs remain intact. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India’s IT industry remains one of the country’s biggest strengths, adding that the transition to AI must be managed carefully. He said the government is working with academia on multiple fronts, including reskilling initiatives and building a new AI talent pipeline. The Future Skills programme has now been redeployed specifically for AI skilling. On investments, Vaishnaw noted that venture capital firms are committing significant funds to deep-tech startups and cutting-edge AI models, with strong interest also in the energy and infrastructure layers supporting AI growth. He highlighted that more than 50 per cent of India’s power generation capacity now comes from clean sources, calling it a key advantage. Addressing organisational concerns, Vaishnaw said operations are smooth, and a dedicated war room has been functional since yesterday. He apologised to those who faced issues and said efforts are underway to ensure the smooth conduct of what he described as the world’s largest summit. At the AI Impact Summit, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the sector presents a significant investment opportunity, with more than $200 billion likely to flow in over the next two years. He pointed to strong and clearly committed venture capital backing for deep tech startups. Vaishnaw also highlighted a growing consensus to make AI more accountable, ensuring that communities benefit from emerging technologies while mitigating potential risks. The summit programme, now live, includes technical sessions, use-case discussions, and policy dialogues in Paris, culminating in a high-level gathering aimed at shaping a shared roadmap for responsible AI. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to hold press conference on AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam soon This is the Livestream link for different sessions going on at the Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre.: https://m.youtube.com/@IndiaAI/streams The AI Cricket Coach demo at Google stall at the AI Impact Summit 2026 is attracting hundreds of visitors. After queuing up to register, users get to play cricket with live commentary powered by Gemini. Indian startup Sarvam AI will introduce India’s full stack sovereign AI platform on February 17. The AI stack will comprise foundational models built on sovereign Indian data, applications delivering impact at population scale, and compute infrastructure capable of powering AI for a billion people, the company said. “This is a first-of-its-kind opportunity to see how the entire AI stack, from infrastructure to applications, comes together to define India's AI-first future,” it added. The event will take place from 12:30pm to 2:30pm on February 18, at Plenary Hall B, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. BharatGen, an IIT Bombay-led consortium and one of the 12 entities chosen to develop India’s sovereign AI models under the India AI mission, will unveil a new 17-billion parameter model at Bharat Mandapam today (February 17). The launch is expected to take place at 11:30 am in L2, Audi W, Bharat Mandapam. Rishi Bal, Executive VP & Head, BharatGen, and Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Lead Professor-in-Charge, BharatGen Technology Foundation, IIT Bombay, will be the keynote speakers. A general advisory issued by the IT Ministry on February 17, states that the following timings shall be applicable across the Summit venues on 17 February 2026. • Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre: 9:30AM - 6:00PM • Bharat Mandapam Expo Arena: 9:30AM - 6:00PM. • Sushma Swaraj Bhawan: 9:30AM - 6:00 PM Entry gates, timings • Gate No. 4: Operational for entry 8:00AM onwards; drop offs by cars/cabs. • Gate No. 7: Operational for entry 8:00AM onwards; drop offs by cars/cabs. • Gate No. 10: Operational for entry for delegates arriving by Metro. Speaking on the opening day of the AI Impact Summit 2026, Jitin Prasada, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology and Commerce & Industry, reinforced India’s leadership in AI development. He stated, “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.” PM Modi inaugurated the India AI Impact Expo 2026 at Bharat Mandapam. > Inaugurated the India AI Impact Expo 2026 at Bharat Mandapam. Being here among innovators, researchers and tech enthusiasts gives a glimpse of the extraordinary potential of AI, Indian talent and innovation. Together, we will shape solutions not just for India but for the… pic.twitter.com/G370iXYAXm— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 16, 2026 Inaugurated the India AI Impact Expo 2026 at Bharat Mandapam. Being here among innovators, researchers and tech enthusiasts gives a glimpse of the extraordinary potential of AI, Indian talent and innovation. Together, we will shape solutions not just for India but for the… pic.twitter.com/G370iXYAXm "There are things about AI safety, cybersecurity track, and multiple other things on which we are working on," said Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at India AI Impact Summit 2026. > VIDEO | India AI Impact Summit 2026: "There are things about AI safety, cybersecurity track, and multiple other things on which we are working on," says Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.#ptiataiimpactsummit #indiaaiimpactsummit2026#aiimpactsummit2026(Full video… pic.twitter.com/v8gfvt8jPE— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 16, 2026 VIDEO | India AI Impact Summit 2026: "There are things about AI safety, cybersecurity track, and multiple other things on which we are working on," says Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.#ptiataiimpactsummit #indiaaiimpactsummit2026#aiimpactsummit2026(Full video… pic.twitter.com/v8gfvt8jPE Akash Ambani, Chairman, Jio, showcases the company’s AI-led transformation across healthcare, education, culture, and smart home solutions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Jio AI Pavilion during the India AI Impact Summit 2026. > #watch | India AI Impact Summit 2026 | Akash Ambani, Chairman, Jio, showcases the company’s AI-led transformation across healthcare, education, culture, and smart home solutions to honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Jio AI Pavilion during the India AI Impact Summit 2026. pic.twitter.com/k2BqvZc3uB— ANI (@ANI) February 16, 2026 #watch | India AI Impact Summit 2026 | Akash Ambani, Chairman, Jio, showcases the company’s AI-led transformation across healthcare, education, culture, and smart home solutions to honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Jio AI Pavilion during the India AI Impact Summit 2026. pic.twitter.com/k2BqvZc3uB Sunil Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Yotta Data Services, said India should declare digital infrastructure as the “most essential commodity” to become a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) production. India must move from being a massive generator and consumer of data to becoming a sovereign processor of it, at scale, he added. Gupta said that nearly one billion Indians carry smartphones connected to the internet, accounting for roughly 20% of global data creation and consumption. However, India processes only about 3% of it domestically. He said India cannot just rely on imported technologies and must create its own digital infrastructure in terms of computing to define its own models, datasets and use cases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited various stalls and interacted with companies participating in the AI Impact Summit 2026. (Screenshot: YouTube/@NarendraModi) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived at India AI Impact Expo 2026 which is being held at Bharat Mandapam. > #watch | Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026, at Bharat Mandapam.The India AI Impact Expo 2026 is being held from 16th to 20th February 2026, alongside the India AI Impact Summit. The theme of the Summit is Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana… pic.twitter.com/QElKXW1KCr— ANI (@ANI) February 16, 2026 #watch | Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026, at Bharat Mandapam.The India AI Impact Expo 2026 is being held from 16th to 20th February 2026, alongside the India AI Impact Summit. The theme of the Summit is Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana… pic.twitter.com/QElKXW1KCr On how the government can work with industry to provide guardrails fight deepfakes and disinformation, at the India AI Impact Summit, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw says, "Deep fakes and disinformation are attacking the foundation of our society and the root of trust between institutions created by society. AI models, creators will have to take responsibility for making sure that the new technology is strengthening the trust rather than belittling it..." At India AI Impact Summit, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw says, "In the next few days of the AI summit, we are looking at the impact of AI on human society. There are positive impacts of AI, including weather forecasting, climate change, agriculture, the discovery of new materials, and productivity gains. There are potential negative impacts. We are looking at how to balance these impacts so we can capture the benefits while containing the harms. We will come out with a good outcome from this summit."--ANI At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Greenbaum, part of the Israel delegation and Professor of Law from ZVI Meitar Institute, Reichman University, says, "I think this is a great opportunity to network, to see other movers and shakers in the area of AI and governance, see what's going on in emerging areas of technology. This is a huge effort on behalf of India. This is the first large AI summit for the Global South, and there is a lot to talk about and a lot of things to learn. It's very important for the Global South to be part of this conversation. We hear a lot about innovation and entrepreneurship in India's technology... I know that India has a lot of hope to develop models to have AI for India, to have India's voice as part of the AI ecosystem and this is a great opportunity for India to put its flag down and tell the world that it's here and it's a great opportunity for them to become as involved as they should be in the area of artificial intelligence..." --ANI On the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Azizjon Akramov, Director, Semiconductors & Electronics Strategy, Uzbekistan, says, "India AI Impact Summit is one of the world's most serious and important events of the year. We are here by the invitation of the Asian Development Bank, and we are participating in three sessions. Furthermore, we are expected to have more dialogues with our other counterparts. I am here participating as a delegate from the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and I am the strategy director for semiconductors and electronics development. I am expecting to meet the industry leaders and relevant companies, relevant business partners and relevant government agencies, both from international and from Indian counterparts as well. We will see the ways of cooperation, and we would be happy to establish dialogue between our countries, between our uh ministries and on any relevant topics..."--ANI In a conversation with American media mogul and former diplomat Charles Rivkin at the AI Impact Summit 2026, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that protecting intellectual property rights while training AI models would require techno-legal solutions shaped by close engagement with the industry and building consensus at a global level, highlighting the complexity of the issue. While underscoring the importance of strong copyright protections in building investor confidence to fuel innovation, Rivkin asked Vaishnaw how Indian ministries plan to guide the responsible use of artificial intelligence. “The foundational models are trained using the knowledge which is there in the public sphere, books, periodicals, journals, films and videos, and every source of content. Is that model the right way of rewarding the creators? Are there more improvements to be done? Are there the right guard rails to be created so that there is a right balance between IP and innovation,” the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology framed these fundamental questions pertaining to the matter. “Would a simple regulation do that? Probably, no. That would require a lot of consensus building and technological tools to be created. For such complex problems, we need to have techno-legal solutions – solutions which look at laws while simultaneously looking at technical guardrails, technical balancing features in the AI models and in the way AI is deployed,” Vaishnaw added. “We are closely engaging with the industry to find out the right technical and legal structures for this. And this is something which will have to be taken up at a global level – this will require a consensus building across different countries,” he said. Agreeing with Vaishnaw’s views, Rivkin said, “when rights are unclear, then risk tolerance is low,” while underscoring the rapid advancement in the AI. Companies showcase their products at the AI Impact Summit 2026. The summit will feature over 840 exhibitors, including national delegations, tech companies, AI startups, and research labs. (Express Photo/Tashi Tobgyal) In a virtual address to the AI Impact Summit 2026, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said AI adoption cannot just happen by drift and requires a clear commitment to aligning technological adoption with mass employability. He emphasised strengthening foundation or education, high quality skills, expanding labour-intensive service sectors, and removing the regulatory bottlenecks. Nageswaran highlighted the need for collaborative effort from private players, academia and policymakers, adding that "with foresight, institutional discipline, and relentless execution, India can become the first large society to demonstrate true human abundance," as quoted by news agency PTI. Companies showcase their products at the AI Impact Summit 2026. The summit will feature over 840 exhibitors, including national delegations, tech companies, AI startups, and research labs. (Express Photo/Tashi Tobgyal) Speaking at a session in the AI Impact Summit 2026, Union Minister Jitin Prasada urged caution in the use of AI tools, saying misinformation generated through artificial intelligence has the power to undermine democratic systems. "If you don't get into digital literacy, then you have the vulnerability of falling to cyber threats. Cyber security is such a big issue, and AI deep fakes misinformation. And a country like India, which is truly democratic, and elections are happening all around the year, be it at the central level, state or municipality. But if there's kind of misinformation using AI, it has the power to derail democracies," the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology said, as quoted by news agency PTI. "It has the power to change people's minds in the wrong fashion, and once a decision has been taken, as far as the vote goes, it could be so counterproductive, because you people have voted on false information. So we and the government have that challenge as well," he added. Prasada also said that AI can significantly enhance learning for students and teachers, but it must not be treated as a shortcut that weakens critical thinking or curiosity. Huge crowds attend the India AI Impact Summit on its inaugural day in New Delhi on Monday. (Express Photo/Tashi Tobgyal) The Bharat-VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources), an AI-driven multilingual tool for farmers, will be launched by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma in Jaipur. It aims to provide agricultural information via mobile or phone, assisting with crop planning, pest management, weather forecasts, and various government schemes, available 24/7 through an AI assistant named Bharati. The tool also features stakeholder collaboration and interactive feedback for policy-making and research prioritization will initially support Hindi and English, expanding to regional languages. The tool also features stakeholder collaboration and interactive feedback for policy-making and research prioritisation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UB5kRjmDa4 Indian AI startup Sarvam AI is on a campaign to announce new AI products and initiatives for 14 continuous days. Most recently, it introduced a new AI model called Sarvam Edge on-device models for speech recognition, speech synthesis, translation, and document digitisation. Here are a few other key announcements by Sarvam in the past week: Bulbul V3: A new version of its text-to-speech AI model with improvements in natural speech generation across Indian regions, scripts, and accents. Sarvam Vision: It is a 3 billion-parameter vision-language model capable of a range of visual understanding tasks, including image captioning, scene text recognition, chart interpretation, and complex table parsing. Sarvam Samvaad: Conversational AI agents that can be integrated with customers’ enterprise tools in order to take action and deliver insights based on proprietary data. Sarvam Audio: It is an audio extension of Sarvam 3B, a 3-billion-parameter language model pre-trained on English and 22 Indian languages. Sarvam Dub: It is an AI dubbing model with zero-shot voice cloning, precise timing control, and powered by cross-lingual speech models that allows creators to dub podcasts, educational courses, etc in multiple Indian languages. The India AI Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM) Report will be launched at the AI Impact Summit on February 16. The report has been drafted by UNESCO in partnership with the IndiaAI Mission and Ikigai Law. It examines India's current ethical AI landscape and preparedness, and offers actionable recommendations. The event will feature a keynote by Dr. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India. S Krishnan, Secretary, IT Ministry, and Abhishek Singh, IndiaAI Mission CEO, are also expected to attend the launch along with UNESCO representatives. The launch will take place from 3:30 to 4:25 PM in Room 15, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. IIT Madras-led AI4Bharat has announced the launch of a new performance benchmark for evaluating speech recognition systems across 15 languages. Developed in partnership with Josh Talks, the benchmark has been designed to evaluate how effectively AI speech recognition tools perform in Indian contexts by taking into account various dialects, code-switching (Hindi-English, Tamil-English), background noise, and district-level variations. Indian startup Sarvam AI’s tool, Sarvam Audio, achieved a 93 per cent accuracy in regional dialects. Among global AI tools, Google Gemini emerged as a leading contender while OpenAI and Meta’s models showed significant error rates, as per AI4Bharat. The release of the benchmark comes amid the India-AI Impact Summit 2026, with several Indian tech startups focusing on voice AI models voice as a key interface for digital services. Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates has arrived in Amravati, Andhra Pradesh, ahead of attending the AI India Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi. With PM Modi set to inaugurate the AI Impact Expo at Bharat Mandapam today (5pm), the exhibition is also expected to showcase newly launched, domestically developed AI language models by Indian startups and companies. This includes sovereign AI models being built by Sarvam AI and Bharatgen. There could also be some hardware-related announcements, centres around expanding India’s data centre capacity. Besides this, the Summit will also have deep dives into how AI is impacting professions and industries, the new skill requirements for the evolving job market, and the role of AI in supporting farmers, small businesses and individuals. The following timings are applicable across the venues of the AI Summit on February 16: - Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre: 9:30am-6pm - Bharat Mandapam Expo Arena: Closed on 16 February (Inauguration by PM Modi at 5pm). Open to all from February 17 onwards. - Sushma Swaraj Bhawan: 9:30am - 6pm Entry gates, timings at Bharat Mandapam: - Gate No. 4: Operational for entry between 7.30am up to 2pm only; drop offs by cars/cabs permitted. Post 2 pm, access through Gate No. 4 will be regulated/restricted as per security protocol. - Gate No. 7: Operational for entry after 2pm only. - Gate No. 10: Entry for delegates arriving by Metro As the AI Impact Summit 2026 kicks off today (Feb 16), PM Modi said that he was confident that the outcomes of the Summit "will help shape a future that is progressive, innovative and opportunity-driven." In a welcome note on X, Modi said, The theme of the Summit is Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya or welfare for all, happiness for all, reflecting our shared commitment to harnessing Artificial Intelligence for human-centric progress. The AI Impact Summit will enrich global discourse on diverse aspects of AI, such as innovation, collaboration, responsible use and more [...] From digital public infrastructure to a vibrant StartUp ecosystem and cutting-edge research, our strides in AI reflect both ambition and responsibility," he wrote. Inside India’s frontier lab and its global south impact When: Feb 16 (9:30 AM – 10:30 AM); Where: L1 Meeting Room No. 6, Bharat Mandapam - Sahil Arora, Qualcomm - Sunil Gupta, Yotta Data Services - Abhishek Upperwal, Soket AI - Rangarajan V, Adani Defence & Aerospace - Joseph Joshy, International Financial Services Centres Authority - Mayank Singh, IIT Gandhinagar The future of employability in the age of AI When: Feb 16 (9:30 AM – 10:30 AM); Where: West Wing Room 4 A, Bharat Mandapam - V Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, India - Sanjeev Bhikchandani, InfoEdge - Anurag Mairal, Stanford University of Medicine - Shashi Shekhar Vempati, AI4India India’s AI infrastructure: From vision to reality When: Feb 16 (12:30 PM – 1:30 PM); Where: L1 Meeting Room No. 17, Bharat Mandapam - Kishore Balaji, IBM - Ranganath Sadasiva, HP Enterprises - Sumit Monga, Lenovo Group - Dipakshi Mehandru, Intel Corporation - Tarandeep Bagga, Cisco - Vibha Mehra, Nokia - Amrit Jiwan, Canon India - Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the AI Impact Expo, a showcase of AI products and solutions from more than 850 exhibitors, at the Bharat Mandapam Expo Arena. The inauguration will take place at 5pm and access to Expo Arena will be closed for attendees, as per a post on X by IndiaAI. However, the expo will be open to the public from tomorrow (February 17) - Keynotes, plenary sessions, and thematic panel discussions will generally commence at the Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre and Sushma Swaraj Bhawan from 9:30am onwards. You can register as a delegate for the AI Impact Summit 2026 through the official website: https://impact.indiaai.gov.in/registration. There is no registration fee. After filling out the required details, you will be asked to verify your email ID with an OTP. Following the submission of the registration form, you will receive a confirmation of the same on your registered email id. Once your registration is approved, you will receive an email stating the same, and another email with a QR code. The QR Code can be presented for entry at Bharat Mandapam Gate No 4 and Gate 10, and Sushma Swaraj Bhawan Gate No 2. All registered participants are required to carry a valid government-issued photo ID (international visitors must carry their respective passports) along with their invitation, badge, or QR code. - Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India - Emmanuel Macron, President of France - Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google - Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and MD, Reliance Industries - Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAl - Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe - Cristiano Amon, CEO, Qualcomm - Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic - Demis Hassabis, CEO, Google DeepMind - Arthur Mensch, CEO, Mistral AI - Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer, Meta - Pratyush Kumar and Vivek Raghavan, co-founders, Sarvam AI - Vishal Sikka, founder and CEO, Vianai The three main goals of the AI Impact Summit 2026 are leveraging AI to empower people and promote innovation, projecting India as the service provider for AI for the whole world, and democratising access to compute, datasets, and algorithms. It comprises seven working groups, termed ‘chakras’, that will cover topics such as: ‘Resilience, Innovation, and Efficiency,’ ‘Human Capital,’ ‘Safe & Trusted AI’, ‘Science’, ‘Democratising AI Resources’, ‘Inclusion for Social Empowerment’, and ‘AI for Social Good & Economic Development’. The official two-day Summit is expected to be inaugurated by PM Modi on February 19 and will culminate on February 20, with various countries set to adopt a Declaration on this day. India is reportedly seeking the formation of a trusted AI commons and a global governance framework for AI.