India–AI Impact Summit 2026 to Champion ‘Democratisation of AI’ for Viksit Bharat

Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a defining force in India's development journey, strengthening governance, transforming public service delivery, and enabling solutions that can reach citizens at scale. As India advances towards the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047, the country is placing the democratisation of AI at the heart of its strategy—ensuring that the benefits of this powerful technology are accessible, affordable and widely shared.

Building on this national vision, the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 will be held from 16 to 20 February 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, bringing together global leaders, policymakers, innovators and technology companies to shape the future of inclusive and responsible AI.

Notably, this will be the first global AI summit hosted in the Global South, positioning India as a key voice in ensuring equitable access to AI resources worldwide.

AI: The Next Leap in Human Progress

Technology has always shaped human advancement—electricity transformed daily life, computers revolutionised information processing, the internet connected societies, and mobile phones placed digital power directly in citizens' hands.

AI builds on these foundations and is now working alongside humans to transform critical sectors including:

• Agriculture

• Healthcare

• Education

• Manufacturing

• Climate action

• Governance and public administration

For India, the challenge and opportunity lie in ensuring that AI is not concentrated in the hands of a few, but becomes a shared national capability.

What Does Democratisation of AI Mean?

Democratisation of AI refers to making artificial intelligence:

• Accessible

• Affordable

• Usable

• Inclusive

It goes beyond finished applications and focuses on widening access to the core building blocks of AI, including:

• Computing power

• High-quality datasets

• Model ecosystems

• Digital infrastructure

Equitable access to these resources increasingly determines who can innovate, compete and govern effectively in the digital economy.

India's development-focused approach places democratisation at the centre of its AI strategy, enabling participation by startups, researchers, public institutions and innovators across regions.

AI as a Driver of Economic Opportunity

India's AI momentum is reflected in its growing workforce, with over 6 million people employed across the technology and AI ecosystem.

A NITI Aayog report, AI for Inclusive Societal Development (October 2025), highlights AI's potential to empower India's 490 million informal workers by widening access to services, markets and financial systems.

India's AI path mirrors its earlier digital successes:

• UPI democratised digital payments

• Aadhaar enabled population-scale digital identity

• Indigenous 4G/5G stacks strengthened technological self-reliance

AI is now following the same philosophy of openness and inclusion.

Democratising AI Applications for Public Impact

India's approach focuses on deploying AI at scale to improve everyday life.

Agriculture

AI is supporting farmers through:

• Weather prediction

• Pest risk alerts

• Irrigation and sowing guidance

Platforms like Kisan e-Mitra, the National Pest Surveillance System, and satellite-based Crop Health Monitoring are improving income security and resilience.

Healthcare

AI is enabling:

• Early disease detection

• Medical image analysis

• Expanded telemedicine for rural areas

This is improving both quality and reach of care.

Bhashini: Language Access at Scale

Bhashini, launched in July 2022, is an AI-powered translation and speech platform helping citizens access digital services across Indian languages.

• 1.2 million+ downloads

• Supports 36+ languages

• Integrates 350+ AI models

• Serves 450+ active customers

Disaster Preparedness

AI tools are strengthening weather and cyclone forecasting:

• Advanced Dvorak Technique

• MausamGPT under development

• IMD AI-based rainfall and fog prediction

India's Startup Surge

As of January 2026:

• India ranks among the world's top 3 startup ecosystems

• Over 2 lakh startups are active

• Nearly 90% are AI-powered in some form

Democratising Access to AI Infrastructure

India recognises that inclusive AI requires open and affordable foundational infrastructure.

IndiaAI Mission: ₹10,371.92 Crore Investment

Approved in March 2024, the IndiaAI Mission has an outlay of ₹10,371.92 crore over five years, supporting:

• Compute access

• Dataset availability

• Indigenous models

• Responsible AI deployment

AIKosh: Shared National Dataset & Model Platform

AIKosh is India's shared AI resource platform.

As of February 2026:

• 7,541 datasets

• 273 AI models

• Covers 20 sectors

• 3.85 lakh visits

• 11,000 registered users

• 26,000 downloads

India's Own Multimodal AI Models

Under the IndiaAI Mission:

• 500+ proposals received

• 12 startups selected, including Sarvam AI, Gnani AI, BharatGen (IIT Bombay), Tech Mahindra Maker's Lab and others

This strengthens India's AI sovereignty and local relevance.

Affordable Compute Access

To overcome compute barriers:

• 38,000 high-end GPUs onboarded

• Available at ₹65 per hour (one-third global average)

• 1,050 TPUs added for advanced processing

National Supercomputing Mission

India has deployed:

• 40+ petaflops capacity

• Across IITs, IISERs and research institutions

• Systems like PARAM Siddhi-AI and AIRAWAT supporting shared national AI workloads

Chips, Semiconductors and Long-Term Self-Reliance

India is strengthening domestic chip capabilities through the India Semiconductor Mission:

• Outlay: ₹76,000 crore

• 10 projects approved by December 2025

• Investments: ₹1.60 lakh crore across 6 states

• Chip market projected at $100–110 billion by 2030

Union Budget 2026–27 announced India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 with ₹1,000 crore provision for FY 2026–27.

Data Centres, Connectivity and Energy Foundations

5G Expansion

• 5G available in 99.9% districts

• Covers 85% of population

• 5.08 lakh BTS installed by October 2025

Data Centre Growth

• Current capacity: 1,280 MW

• Expected to grow 4–5 times by 2030

Global investments include:

• Google's $15 billion AI hub in Visakhapatnam

• AWS $8.3 billion data centre investment in Maharashtra

Clean Energy Transition

• India achieved 50% non-fossil electricity capacity by June 2025

• Renewable energy reached 253.96 GW by November 2025

• Record 44.5 GW added in 2025

Nuclear capacity is projected to rise from 8.78 GW to 22.38 GW by 2031–32 under SHANTI Act 2025.

Policy and Regulatory Support for Trusted AI

India is building secure digital foundations:

• MeghRaj (GI Cloud) supports scalable government AI deployment

• 2,170 ministries/departments hosted applications by December 2025

• Government Open Data License (2017) enables reuse of non-sensitive datasets

• Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 strengthens citizen safeguards

Education, Skilling and AI Literacy

India is investing in AI readiness through:

• Centres of Excellence in healthcare, agriculture, sustainable cities

• CoE for Education announced in Budget 2025

• Five National Skilling CoEs

• SOAR initiative for students (Class 6–12) launched July 2025

• AI training in 31 new-age ITI courses

• YUVAi programme for Classes 8–12 (launched November 2022)

• AI Competency Framework for government officials

Under IndiaAI Mission support includes:

• 500 PhD scholars

• 5,000 postgraduate students

• 8,000 undergraduate students

• 31 AI labs launched in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities

Global Cooperation Through India–AI Impact Summit 2026

The summit will host:

• 15–20 Heads of Government

• 50+ international ministers

• 100+ global and Indian CXOs

Deliberations will be organised through Chakras (Working Groups), including the key Democratizing AI Resources Working Group, co-chaired by India, Egypt and Kenya.

Objectives include:

• Promoting AI resources as global public goods

• Building distributed AI infrastructure

• Supporting capacity building and knowledge exchange

Towards an Inclusive AI Future

India's approach to democratising AI demonstrates that scale, inclusion and innovation can advance together. By expanding access to data, compute, chips, connectivity, energy and skills, India is ensuring that AI benefits farmers, students, startups, researchers and public institutions alike.

As the Global South hosts its first major AI summit, India is offering a model where technology strengthens societies, reduces inequality, and supports sustainable development for all.