India has special responsibility as Global South looks to us: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar underlined the important role India plays in the global Artificial Intelligence landscape, noting that several countries, especially those from the Global South, look up to it for inspiration.

He made the remarks while speaking at the Trust and Safety India Festival 2025. As a pre-summit for February 2026 AI Impact Summit it kicks of conversations of interest for India and the world.

"India bears a special responsibility because many other nations - especially those of the Global South - they look to us for inspiration, and certainly in the case of the digital public infrastructure."

Highlighting the achievements of India in the last decade when one looks at the scale of delivery, improvement in governance, efficiencies with which public is served, the EAM noted that this is resonating across the world.

"As a Foreign Minister, when I go abroad, this is often the topic of conversation, and I can see very much, this being extrapolated into the world of AI as well", he said.

Jaishankar highlighted in his remarks how for a society like India, when it comes to responsible AI, "this means development of indigenous tools and frameworks, self-assessment protocols for innovators and establishing relevant guidelines. Only then can we be assured that the development, deployment, use and governance of AI is safe and accessible."

Noting that the world is at a cusp of an immense change, Jaishankar mentioned how the decisions made by us individually and collectively will help decide the fate of the foreseeable future.

He said that those who consider this a far-fetched idea, in the next few years, "AI will transform our economies, change our work habits, create radically new health solutions, enhance educational access, improve efficiencies and could even lead to a new lifestyle.

Noting that the changes brought by AI will be all-pervasive and impact every person, Jaishankar said it is thus imperative to adopt a balanced approach towards AI governance for protecting digital citizens.

He underscored, "The difference with the past is that this particular transformation that is going to come upon us - this will be all-pervasive and not just sectoral. It will impact every citizen in every corner of the world. New efficiencies and new possibilities will certainly emerge; but so too will new players and new power centres. For this very reason, we need to adopt a balanced approach to the governance of AI and to ensure that there are adequate guardrails in place to protect digital nagriks. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has noted: "Technology is a force for good, but only if humanity guides it".