India-AI Summit Day 1: Sovereign AI, jobs, global ties dominate talks

Day 1 of the India-AI Impact Summit, which is being held in New Delhi, saw policy urgency, sovereign AI push, and signals on jobs, skills, regulation and infrastructure shaping India's AI ambitions

The India-AI Impact Summit commenced on Monday (February 16) in New Delhi with policymakers, industry executives and global delegations converging at Bharat Mandapam, marking the first global AI summit of its scale hosted in the Global South. The five-day gathering brings together leaders from over 100 countries, tech companies, startups and research institutions to frame global governance and collaboration around artificial intelligence.

 

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran opened Day 1 with a clear policy warning that AI adoption cannot be left to market forces alone. He said India must treat artificial intelligence as national economic infrastructure, which requires coordinated investment, regulatory clarity and institutional readiness. He cautioned that without urgency, productivity gains may remain uneven, thus widening income disparities and limiting India’s ability to convert its digital scale into sustained economic advantage.

 

 

Voice of India benchmark signals push for sovereign speech AI 

Meanwhile, India’s sovereign AI push gained technical grounding with the unveiling of a multilingual speech recognition benchmark designed to reflect India’s linguistic diversity. The benchmark, which is developed under the Voice of India initiative, evaluates performance across Indian languages and dialects, addressing gaps in global models trained primarily on English and major international languages. The effort is aimed at improving inclusion, localisation and real-world deployment of voice-based AI systems across public and private services.

 

Ethical AI is mandatory, not optional: Soha Ali Khan 

Bollywood actor and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Soha Ali Khan framed AI governance as a societal responsibility rather than a technical debate. She said ethical safeguards must be embedded at the design stage, especially as AI systems increasingly influence education, media and decision-making.

 

"I've watched this transformation across India as well. Young women have built businesses online. Girls are still attending stories that one side was faced by entrepreneurs," she said.

 

AI to boost productivity, not replace jobs: Info Edge founder 

As fears around mass job losses due to the advent of AI continue to mount, Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani sought to allay those fears, arguing AI will reshape workflows rather than eliminate human labour entirely. He said technology historically increases productivity and creates new categories of work, even as it disrupts existing roles. The shift, he suggested, will reward adaptability, with individuals and companies that integrate AI tools early likely to gain competitive advantages in efficiency and innovation.

 

AI integration in transport can improve safety outcomes

 

Meanwhile, talking about the use of AI in improving road safety in India, Pankaj Aggarwal, a senior Ministry of Road Transport and Highways official, highlighted AI’s role in improving road safety through predictive monitoring and real-time analysis. He said that AI applications include driver behaviour tracking, traffic optimisation and accident prediction systems. India, which records among the world’s highest road fatalities, is exploring AI deployment to reduce risk, enhance enforcement and improve infrastructure planning, signalling a shift toward technology-led safety governance.

 

India has highest AI skill penetration, says Jitin Prasada 

Citing India’s large base of trained engineers, developers and researchers, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Jitin Prasada said India has emerged as a global leader in AI skill penetration. He said the country’s digital public infrastructure and startup ecosystem provide a strong foundation for scaling innovation and that the government’s focus now is on expanding compute access, datasets and training to convert talent depth into globally competitive AI products.

 

India in talks with 30+ countries on deepfake regulation 

Speaking on the growing concern of deepfakes, Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said India is actively engaging with more than 30 countries to develop coordinated legal and technical responses to deepfakes. He described synthetic media as a cross-border governance challenge requiring shared standards and enforcement mechanisms. The remarks come nearly a week after the Centre asked social media platforms to create and strengthen mechanisms to identify and regulate AI-generated content.

 

AI to unbundle jobs and drive exponential growth: Microsoft India 

Microsoft India president Puneet Chandok described AI as a structural shift that will “unbundle” jobs into smaller task components, enabling automation and augmentation simultaneously. He said AI capabilities are improving at exponential rates, with adoption accelerating across sectors including finance, healthcare and manufacturing. The transformation, he suggested, will redefine productivity models, organisational structures and skill requirements over the next three years.

 

AI augmenting human capability, not replacing it: Cisco India 

Cisco India and SAARC Managing Director Daisy Chittilapilly said AI’s primary role is augmentation rather than substitution. She emphasised its ability to enhance decision-making, automate routine tasks and improve operational efficiency. Enterprise adoption is increasingly focused on embedding AI into core workflows, enabling faster analysis, improved security and smarter infrastructure management, reinforcing AI’s role as a productivity multiplier within existing organisational structures.

 

Disaster management needs legal framework for AI deployment 

A United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction official highlighted AI’s growing role in predicting disasters, managing response and improving preparedness. However, the official said deployment must be backed by clear legal frameworks governing data use, accountability and operational authority. As climate risks intensify, governments are increasingly evaluating AI-driven forecasting and response systems, raising new questions around liability, privacy and cross-agency coordination.

 

Government to provide AI access to medical students 

India is expanding access to AI tools and datasets for medical students, reflecting plans to integrate artificial intelligence into healthcare training and delivery, B Srinivas, a senior health ministry official, said. AI is being positioned as a support tool for diagnostics, treatment planning and medical research, he said. The initiative will align with broader efforts to modernise public healthcare systems and ensure future doctors are equipped to work alongside intelligent systems.

 

"So the government is thinking of using the leverage of AI to reach out to these students ... in the National Medical Library, we have started the process of securing the e-books and the digital clinical material, and we are doing it right now in around 57 government medical colleges across the country," Srinivas said.

 

Qualcomm showcases humanoid robots and AI hardware 

The first day of the international mega event also witnessed a demonstration of AI-powered humanoids. Qualcomm showcased humanoid robots powered by on-device AI processing, highlighting advances in robotics and edge computing. The company showcased an integrated offering that combines hardware, software and artificial intelligence, positioning it as a complete stack intended to speed up the rollout of physical AI systems. Qualcomm said that the platform is built to support multiple use cases, from home robots and industrial autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to full-scale humanoid machines.

 

AI will fundamentally reshape human work: Prasoon Joshi 

McCann Worldgroup India chairman Prasoon Joshi said AI will reshape how humans create, communicate and work, particularly in creative industries. He described AI as a collaborator rather than a replacement, capable of accelerating ideation and execution. However, he stressed the continued importance of human judgment, originality and emotional intelligence, suggesting the future of work will depend on effective human-AI collaboration.

 

BharatGen CEO highlights sovereign AI after DeepSeek moment 

BharatGen CEO emphasised the strategic importance of sovereign AI development, referencing global competition in foundational models. He said India must build its own models trained on local datasets to ensure technological independence and relevance. Sovereign AI, he argued, is critical not just for economic competitiveness but also for cultural representation, data security and long-term digital self-reliance.

 

Copyright laws must evolve for AI era: Raghav Chadha 

Talking about copyright laws in India, Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha said existing copyright frameworks are ill-equipped to address AI-generated content and its impact on creators. He warned that outdated legal structures risk undermining creative industries by failing to define ownership, attribution and compensation clearly.

 

“Our content creators are suffering because of restrictive policies around fair use. We must permit fair use and strike a balance between the two. In India, we are hoping for an amendment to copyright act,” Chadha said.

 

TCS, AMD expand partnership to strengthen AI infrastructure 

Meanwhile, in a significant development to counter NVIDIA’s dominance in AI chipmaking, Tata Consultancy Services and AMD announced an expansion of their partnership focused on building AI infrastructure and enterprise solutions. The collaboration aims to develop scalable systems capable of supporting large-scale AI workloads, reflecting intensifying competition in AI hardware and compute platforms.

 

India-Germany talks focus on AI, semiconductors 

India and Germany held bilateral talks on strengthening cooperation in artificial intelligence, semiconductors and digital transformation, ANI reported. The discussions focused on joint research, mobility solutions and expanding Global Capability Centres. Both sides emphasised the importance of collaborative innovation and shared technology development, reinforcing India’s position as a strategic partner in global AI and semiconductor supply chains.

 

PM Modi inaugurates India AI Impact Expo

 

Towards the evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the India AI Impact Expo, where he also interacted with various participant startups. The expo will feature over 600 high-potential startups and 13 country pavilions.