The India AI Impact Summit 2026 positions New Delhi as a global AI convenor, blending ethics, inclusion and $250 billion in investments to shape the future of artificial intelligence
India's ambition to ensure AI-led economic growth and social good rests on accelerated innovation and execution
InMobi Group CEO Naveen Tewari says agentic commerce can reshape buying behaviour, supply chains and commerce journeys, but warns these AI-driven systems must stay transparent and accountable
Mastercard's chief privacy officer calls for principle-based, tech-neutral global AI rules to build trust, cut regulatory fragmentation and enable AI adoption at scale
India's AI ambition, spanning the entire technology stack, aims to drive innovation across the domestic ecosystem while also contributing globally, Ericsson's senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Erik Ekudden has said. Ekudden told PTI that the evolution of networks will be central to the AI journey. While AI is already being used to optimise 5G networks today, the future will see the rise of agentic AI or AI agents, and eventually physical AI such as robots and humanoids. However, he underlined that full benefits of such advances will only be realised with robust, AI-powered connectivity, with 5G evolving toward AI-native 6G networks in the years ahead. Ekudden said diffusion of AI in telecom is aiding in operations, dimensioning and running the networks in the most efficient way, with humans in the loop. India's AI ambition reflects a clear push to drive innovation across the entire technology stack, not just domestically but with global impact, he said underlining
The conduct of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers arrested for protesting at the AI Impact Summit venue was not legitimate dissent, rather a "blatant assault on public order" that also hurt the country's "diplomatic image", a Delhi court said. Judicial Magistrate Ravi made the observation on Saturday when the four IYC workers who were held for the "shirtless" protest at the Bharat Mandapam here were produced before his court. The court allowed five days of custody to the police to question them. Summarising the reasons for allowing the Delhi Police's plea seeking custodial interrogation, the magistrate said that the accused hailed from remote parts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana, posing a high risk of their absconding. This was "further heightened by early investigation findings suggesting external conspiracy links, the court said. A portion of the order passed by judicial magistrate Ravi, accessed by PTI, said that the protest imperilled or jeopardised not only the ..
The summit focused on seven pillars: human capital development, access for social empowerment, trustworthy AI, energy efficiency, AI in science, democratizing AI resources, and AI for economic growth
Cuba's Communications Minister Mayra Arevich Marin on Saturday said the AI Impact Summit 2026 has positioned India as a leading voice of the Global South in advancing a human-centric and equitable artificial intelligence framework. Addressing the IndiaCuba IT Forum launch here after attending the summit in New Delhi on February 19 and 20, Marin described the gathering as a defining moment in global technology governance. "The AI Impact Summit 2026 has positioned India at the forefront of a human-centric artificial intelligence movement for the Global South," Marin said. She added, "Artificial intelligence is extremely important for development, but we must reduce the risks associated with its use. It must be implemented responsibly and equitably," underlining the need for innovation and regulation to progress together. Marin said the summit - attended by leaders, ministers and policymakers - reflected an emerging consensus that AI development must be inclusive, risk-aware and socia
The IYC's protest at the AI Impact Summit was inspired by Nepal's violent Gen Z movement that recently toppled the government there, the Delhi Police said on Saturday. Investigators are probing the financial trail behind the protest, including who funded the printing of t-shirts brandished during the demonstration, it said. The t-shirts carried messages such as 'PM is compromised', 'India-US Trade Deal' and 'Epstein Files', it said. Teams are conducting raids to locate the printing facility where the shirts were printed and to identify persons involved in arranging them, it said. The police are also questioning Indian Youth Congress president Uday Bhanu Chib, who was examined for the second consecutive day, while a hunt is on to arrest remaining agitators allegedly linked to the protest, sources said. Earlier, the Delhi Police arrested four IYC workers and booked them at Tilak Marg Police Station under multiple provisions, including criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, assault
Indigenously manufactured and developed robots emerged as a major attraction at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, despite an early controversy over an Indian university's claim that a China-made robot dog was its own. Among these, SVAN-M2, a robot dog by Kanpur-based startup xTerra Robotics, was a crowd puller. Co-founder of xTerra Robotics said the product took years of translational research by students and faculty of IIT Kanpur. The SVAN-M2, which has an aluminium alloy body and legs, uses its light detection and ranging (LiDAR) device to create accurate 3D representations of its environment. It can be used for monitoring a hazardous area or at power stations for inspecting the facility with thermal imaging. In the security domain, the robot dog can play a key role in threat detection and save lives by 3D-mapping an area and relaying the images to a team away from the site. Founded by Nimesh Khandelwal, Avinash Bhashkar, Amritanshu Manu, Aditya Rajawat and Shakti S Gupta in 2
Endorsed by 88 countries, the AI Summit declaration calls for trusted and energy-efficient AI systems, democratising access to AI resources, and building human capital for inclusive growth
As many as 86 countries and two international organisations have signed the AI Impact Summit declaration, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday said, adding that the US, UK, Canada, China, Denmark, and Germany are among the signatories. The strong global backing for the declaration comes at the conclusion of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. Vaishnaw told reporters that nations across the world have formalised and upheld principles of 'welfare of all, and happiness of all'. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's human-centric AI vision been accepted by the world. Democratising Artificial Intelligence resources so AI facilities, services and technology can reach everyone in society has been accepted by all," the minister said. Balancing economic growth with social good has been prioritised, he added. "Not just economic growth, even social harmony has to be kept in mind. Safety and trust are at the centre, they have been brought among the main points," Vaishnaw said, adding that
A Delhi court on Saturday sent the four Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers, who were arrested for protesting at the AI Impact Summit venue a day ago, to five-day police custody. Judicial Magistrate Ravi allowed the Delhi Police's plea seeking five days of custodial interrogation of the accused persons. A detailed order is awaited. The arrested protesters were Krishna Hari, national secretary of Youth Congress from Bihar; Kundan Yadav, IYC state secretary, Bihar; Ajay Kumar, IYC state president, Uttar Pradesh; and Narasimha Yadav from Telangana. Delhi Police sought five-day custody of the arrested protesters, arguing that they raised anti-national slogans and wore T-shirts with objectionable images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the event venue. It said the mobile phones of the accused persons were required to be recovered and, as they were from different states, custodial interrogation was necessary. Counsel for the police argued that it was a "serious" matter. An attempt wa
Fears that artificial intelligence could render humans redundant are misplaced, with the real breakthrough lying in combining human judgement with machine-scale automation, Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer of Cisco, said. "I don't see a scenario where humans are completely extinct of contribution of value to society. It just seems like a very far-fetched thing," Patel said, arguing that concerns about humans becoming obsolete overlook the complementary role AI is set to play. "The magic truly happens when you take human instinct and judgement and you combine it with an AI scale of automation." In an interview with PTI, Patel said while AI systems are advancing rapidly - from chatbots to autonomous agents capable of taking actions - they are tools designed to augment, not replace, human capabilities. Citing the example of his mother being hospitalised for about eight weeks before she passed away three years ago, he said no AI is taking a nurse's job. "There is a des
According to the advisory, traffic regulations will remain in force from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM to manage the expected heavy footfall and vehicular movement in and around the summit venue
We would not consider for a second today letting an AI just write Wikipedia articles because we know how bad they can be, Jimmy Wales added
CCI Chairperson Ravneet Kaur says regulators must stay alert as AI adoption accelerates, stressing transparency, accountability and competition safeguards to prevent unfair conduct in digital markets
TCS CEO K Krithivasan said AI will not cause significant job shrinkage in software engineering, noting evolving roles and sustained need for system integration despite rising automation
India's AI opportunity lies in applications solving real-world problems, not costly foundational models, says 3one4 Capital's Siddarth Pai
India shines as a global AI talent hub, but weak compute infrastructure and limited investment expose gaps that could constrain its ambition to compete with the US and China