New Delhi: In a major initiative to drive ethical and inclusive AI adoption, India will host the AI Impact Summit in February 2026.
The AI Impact Summit will serve as a pivotal platform for showcasing how artificial intelligence is transforming sectors like healthcare, agriculture, education, and governance – especially in fast-evolving tech cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi NCR.
Guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of democratizing AI, the IndiaAI Mission is empowering startups, academic institutions, and government bodies to harness AI responsibly.
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AI Impact Summit: Key initiatives include:
Building Indigenous AI for India’s Needs
- India is supporting the development of Large Language and Small Language Models tailored to local dialects and cultural contexts.
- Four startups – Sarvam AI, Soket AI, Gnani AI, and Gan AI – are building foundational AI models that will be made open source for broader innovation.
Compute Capacity and Affordability
- Over 34,000 GPUs have been provisioned through the IndiaAI Compute Portal.
- Startups and researchers in cities like Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Chennai can access these at a government-subsidized rate of just ₹67/hour – one-third the global average.
AIKosh: India’s AI Dataset Platform
- Over 1,000 datasets and 208 models now available for public use across domains such as health, agriculture, education, and climate.
- Bengaluru’s AI ecosystem is leveraging clinical, geological, and linguistic datasets to build India-specific AI tools.
AI Application Development: Solving Real Problems
- 30+ applications funded in verticals like healthcare (AI for early disease detection), agriculture (soil testing and advisory), and governance (AI-powered contact centers).
- Startups from cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi are leading these innovations.
Global Expansion and Partnerships
- The IndiaAI Startups Global Program, launched in partnership with Station F & HEC Paris, supports 10 Indian AI startups scaling into Europe.
Startups supported under IndiaAI Startups Global program launched with Station F & HEC Paris:Sr. No. Startup Name Area of Work 1 PrivaSapien Technologies Responsible AI with privacy engineering and privacy-enhancing technologies 2 CoRover.ai Conversational Gen AI platform for contextual, domain-specific human-like responses 3 Staqu Technologies (Jarvis) AI-powered audio-video analytics for surveillance, security, and governance 4 SatSure Analytics Earth Observation using satellite imagery and AI for decision intelligence 5 Storyvord AI-based video content generation from product URLs and brand context 6 VolarAlta Drone-based AI solutions for industrial inspections 7 Smartail AI-powered edtech platform for immersive learning and real-time assessment 8 Secure Blink AI-driven cybersecurity with proactive DevSecOps posture management 9 NeuroPixel.AI AI-enabled ultra-fast image editing for fashion and e-commerce 10 Voicing AI Agentic AI platform for enterprise-grade intelligent voice agents
AI Impact Summit: Techno-Legal Framework for Safe AI
India is leading with a techno-legal approach to AI governance:
- IT Act, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, and IT Rules 2021 provide legal safeguards against misuse of AI (e.g., deepfakes, misinformation).
- IITs are working on AI tools for privacy, deepfake detection, and bias mitigation.
- A dedicated IndiaAI Safety Institute is coordinating Responsible AI projects covering areas such as watermarking, ethical stress testing, and machine unlearning.
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Bengaluru at the Forefront of AI Innovation
Bengaluru, India’s tech capital, is expected to play a central role in the upcoming AI Impact Summit, bringing together innovators, researchers, and investors.
The city is already home to several AI-powered startups, major R&D labs, and accelerator programs supported under the IndiaAI Mission.
India’s proactive stance on responsible AI adoption and open innovation frameworks positions it as a global AI leader. The AI Impact Summit 2026 will further cement its role in shaping the future of ethical and inclusive AI on the world stage.
