As Asian Voice (AV) goes to print, global leaders have reached India for the AI Impact Summit 2026. From the UK, Deputy PM David Lammy and AI Minister Kanishka Narayan are leading a high-profile delegation, highlighting London’s role in shaping AI governance and strengthening ties with India’s fast-growing digital economy.
Ex-London Deputy Mayor Rajesh Agrawal, former UK PM Rishi Sunak and AV Columnist and former ‘Be The Change’ panellist, Professor Siddartha Khastgir (see p17) are also reportedly among the attendees.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined his vision for AI in a self-reliant India, emphasising sovereignty, inclusivity, and innovation. Speaking to ANI, he said India should be among the top three globally in AI consumption and creation, viewing it as a “force-multiplier” that serves humanity.
He said India aims to write its own code for the digital century, deploy AI models in native languages, and foster startups that create millions of jobs. Modi highlighted efforts to nurture talent, build infrastructure, and develop policies to move from participating in AI to shaping it. On jobs, he noted technology changes work but creates new opportunities, stressing that human decision-making must remain central and calling for global AI standards.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026, held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, features over 600 start-ups and 13 international country pavilions showcasing global AI collaboration.
The first major summit in the Global South, it is the fourth in the series, after the UK (2023, where India signed the Bletchley Park Declaration), South Korea, and France, where India served as co-chair last February.
On the opening day of the summit, over 70,000 attendees caused crowding, slow movement, poor phone signals, and security delays. Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw later apologised for the issues, calling the turnout “phenomenal” and assuring that the government will address feedback to improve the visitor experience.
Spanning 10 arenas and 7,000+ square meters, the event hosts 300 pavilions and live demos across the themes “People, Planet, Progress”, bringing together startups, firms, state governments, and research institutions while fostering international business opportunities in the AI ecosystem. More than 700 sessions are planned across the summit's duration.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 structures its discussions around three main Sutras, through seven key “Chakras,” representing areas of international cooperation to ensure AI delivers practical societal benefits. The Human Capital Chakra focuses on skills, AI literacy, and equitable access as AI reshapes jobs. The Science Chakra promotes global collaboration and standards to apply AI discoveries in health, climate, and materials for real-world impact. The Resilience, Innovation and Efficiency Chakra emphasises sustainable, resource-efficient AI systems. The Inclusion for Social Empowerment Chakra advocates designing AI that fairly benefits all communities. The Democratising AI Resources Chakra seeks to make critical AI infrastructure, like computing power and data, accessible to all nations. The Economic Growth and Social Good Chakra encourages using AI to boost productivity, services, and inclusive development, while the Safe and Trusted AI Chakra prioritises ethical, secure, and reliable systems that protect privacy and minimise bias.
The summit highlights India’s latest AI developments, including sovereign language models by Sarvam AI and BharatGen.
In Jaipur, the Bharat-VISTAAR (Virtually Integrated System to Access Agricultural Resources) tool platform will be launched, a multilingual AI tool helping farmers with crop planning, pest control, weather updates, and government schemes via a 24/7 assistant, Bharati, initially in Hindi and English, with plans to expand to regional languages. It also enables stakeholder collaboration to improve agricultural policies and research.
The India AI Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM) Report, prepared by UNESCO with IndiaAI Mission and Ikigai Law, will be released, evaluating India’s preparedness for ethical AI and offering policy guidance. Additionally, AI4Bharat (IIT Madras) unveiled a new benchmark for speech recognition across 15 Indian languages.
Global leaders gather for summit
The world’s largest AI summit opened to packed halls and long queues, as tech leaders, policymakers, and innovators from over 100 countries gathered at Bharat Mandapam. India aims to expand AI access and promote international collaboration on global AI standards.
During day 1, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran emphasized that AI must be treated as national economic infrastructure, requiring coordinated investment, regulation, and institutional readiness to ensure equitable productivity gains. India also advanced its sovereign AI efforts by unveiling a multilingual speech recognition benchmark under the Voice of India initiative, addressing linguistic diversity and enabling inclusive, localised deployment of voice-based AI systems.
Bollywood actor and UNICEF ambassador Soha Ali Khan emphasised that AI governance is a societal responsibility, stressing that ethical safeguards must be built in from the design stage as AI increasingly impacts education, media, and decision-making.
Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani reassured that AI will reshape workflows rather than replace human labour, creating new opportunities and rewarding adaptability.
Pankaj Aggarwal of the Ministry of Road Transport highlighted AI’s role in enhancing road safety through predictive monitoring, driver tracking, traffic optimisation, and accident prevention.
Minister of State Jitin Prasada noted India’s strong AI talent pool and digital infrastructure, with a focus on expanding compute, datasets, and training to scale innovation globally. Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw addressed the growing threat of deepfakes, stating that India is collaborating with over 30 countries to develop coordinated legal and technical measures against synthetic media.
Microsoft India president Puneet Chandok described AI as a structural shift that will “unbundle” jobs into smaller tasks, enabling automation and augmentation. He noted AI adoption is accelerating across sectors like finance, healthcare, and manufacturing, reshaping productivity, organisational structures, and skill requirements.
Cisco India and SAARC MD Daisy Chittilapilly emphasised AI as an augmentation tool, enhancing decision-making, automating routine tasks, and boosting operational efficiency. Enterprise adoption is increasingly embedding AI into workflows for faster analysis, improved security, and smarter infrastructure.
A UN disaster risk official highlighted AI’s role in predicting disasters and improving response but stressed the need for clear legal frameworks around data, accountability, and coordination.
B Srinivas from India’s health ministry said AI is being integrated into medical education and public healthcare, providing tools for diagnostics, treatment planning, and research across 57 government medical colleges via the National Medical Library.
The summit also featured AI-powered humanoid demonstrations by Qualcomm, showcasing robotics and edge computing solutions for home, industrial, and full-scale humanoid applications.
Prasoon Joshi, chairman of McCann Worldgroup India, said AI will enhance creativity and collaboration in industries while human judgment and emotional intelligence remain crucial.
BharatGen CEO highlighted the need for sovereign AI models trained on local datasets to ensure India’s technological independence, data security, and cultural representation. Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha called for updating copyright laws to address AI-generated content, enabling fair use and protecting creators’ rights. In a move to counter NVIDIA’s dominance in AI hardware, TCS and AMD expanded their partnership to build scalable AI infrastructure for enterprise workloads.
On Day 2 of the India AI Summit 2026, Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel highlighted that India’s AI vision goes beyond technology, calling it “All-Inclusive Intelligence,” echoing PM Modi’s broader vision. She detailed AI’s role across healthcare, from disease surveillance to diagnosis and treatment, including the AI-enabled Media Disease Surveillance System in 13 languages, AI genomic tools under the One Health Mission, and handheld AI-powered X-ray machines for TB detection. Patel noted AI-assisted TB tools increased case detection by 16% and reduced adverse treatment outcomes by 27%, stressing that AI augments, not replaces, doctors.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant cautioned that without robust Digital Public Infrastructure, AI could worsen inequality, adding that India provides 33% more data to AI systems like ChatGPT than the US.
The final two days of the summit (February 19-20) will host over 20 heads of state, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and PM Narendra Modi, discussing the future of AI with global business leaders and investors.
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UK puts AI at heart of India partnership
Britain is putting artificial intelligence at the centre of its global diplomacy. As Asian Voice went to print, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and AI Minister Kanishka Narayan arrived in India to lead a high-profile UK delegation at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, signalling London’s ambition to shape how AI is developed, governed, and deployed worldwide, while deepening ties with one of the fastest-growing digital economies.
The ministers will emphasise AI’s potential as a driver of economic renewal, social inclusion, and public service reform, and to argue that international collaboration is essential to harnessing it responsibly. The New Delhi summit builds on earlier global gatherings in Bletchley, Seoul, and Paris, where the UK played a central role in guiding debates on AI safety, ethics, and innovation. This year, the focus is on tangible impact: improving citizens’ lives, creating jobs, and supporting sustainable growth.
Lammy will meet Indian policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders to showcase how UK and Indian innovations are transforming healthcare, education, local government, and business. He will participate in discussions on inclusive social empowerment and join a high-level panel exploring how AI and global languages can unlock new opportunities. A major announcement will be the UK’s support for the Asian AI for Development (AI4D) Observatory, aimed at strengthening responsible AI innovation and governance across South and Southeast Asia.
"AI is the engine of renewal," Lammy said ahead of the summit, pointing to its potential to help doctors diagnose diseases faster, teachers personalise learning and councils deliver services more efficiently. He stressed that international collaboration, particularly with India, was essential to ensuring AI's benefits are widely shared and underpinned by robust safety standards.
"This summit is an important moment in determining how we can work together with our international partners to unlock the full benefits and potential of AI, while baking in robust and fair safety standards that protect us all," said Lammy, in a pre-summit statement.
Narayan, the first Indian-origin MP from Wales, warned against concentrating AI’s advantages in the hands of a few. "AI is the defining technology of our generation, and we're determined to make sure it delivers for everyone," he said.
"We're pushing a global vision for AI that helps people everywhere to learn more, earn more and shape the future on their terms," he added.
Bengaluru visit and deepening tech ties
Narayan will also visit Bengaluru, India’s technology hub, to witness UK-India collaboration in action. They will meet Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and UK unicorn Graphcore to finalise a pilot scheme allowing up to 500 engineers to rotate between Bengaluru and Bristol on six-month sprints under a blended payroll model tested by HM Treasury’s mobility sandbox.
India and Britain are increasingly intertwined in tech: Infosys, TCS, and Wipro are expanding UK operations following €1.3 billion in Indian investment commitments made during Keir Starmer’s Mumbai visit last year. UK firms, in turn, generate over €47.5 billion from India. These collaborations feed into Vision 2035, a joint roadmap with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to drive growth, innovation, and next-generation technologies.
Sunak highlights global cooperation and adoption
Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also spoke at “AI for All: Reimagining Global Cooperation,” a precursor to the India AI Impact Summit 2026, where leading global experts gathered to explore AI governance, foster international collaboration, and shape a more inclusive digital future.
Sunak, in a recent Sunday Times column, reflected on the significance of AI summits: “When I became PM, there was no forum for world leaders to discuss the defining technology of our time. Creating the first summit put Britain on the global stage and brought tangible economic benefits.”
Sunak highlighted public sector adoption as crucial: AI could improve services affecting more than 40% of the economy, demonstrating the technology’s practical benefits. “Adoption is all when it comes to AI; countries and companies that embrace it will be the 21st century’s economic winners. Fail to act, and we risk falling behind”, he said.
He also contrasted attitudes toward AI in India, where 88% of people view it positively, with Britain’s more cautious public, noting that visible benefits in healthcare and education could shift perceptions.
As the India AI Impact Summit 2026 gets underway in New Delhi, the UK is positioning itself not just as an AI innovator, but as a global convener, turning ambition into real-world impact.
